


Elua's Nightmare, Part IV

by Jon_of_Narva



Series: Elua's Nightmare [4]
Category: Kushiel's Legacy - Jacqueline Carey
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-15
Updated: 2015-04-15
Packaged: 2018-03-12 23:17:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 76,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3358964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jon_of_Narva/pseuds/Jon_of_Narva
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And here in the final part, it all comes together. I did not intend for it to be double the length of the other parts, but doing the setting justice was indeed a labor of love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 40

 

 

 

 

PART IV  
Reckoning

 

 

 

 

40

  
  
_May you live to be a hundred_!

People say that to me once in a great while. Perhaps I shall, and mayhap I will even enjoy it, but not if it means seeing anyone ever look at me the way Phaing was at that moment.  
  
What a strange tableau we must have presented to the people seated around that table. Imriel had unbuttoned his jacket after that climb up the wall to cool a little, and never fastened it again, displaying those diagonal scars. He stood with his sword pointed at Hugues's throat, and the tip of the dart in the miniature crossbow lightly brushed Phaing's back to remind her it was there as he stepped back away. I stood very still as I did my best to make Phaing's mind up for her. Wearing that purple/black dress that was now so very revealing with the wand pressed like a knife to Phaing's throat, the other hand pinching her arm as hard as I could until she let go of her sword. The _Alfar_ herself wore borrowed clothes, a close look would reveal that her skirt was not clothing at all, and the bandage of lace around her head wound as one would tend a patient with the mumps, holding her jaw shut.

  
Patently ridiculous to the casual observer, and yet it goes without saying that not a soul in the room was casual in their observations. They could see our deadly intentions, and the reality of Phaing's despair.  
  
“We _mean_ it, Phaing, drop that sword.” Imriel growled from behind her. This was the crucial heartbeat in time. Would the Guildsmen remain shocked and immobile, would she drop her weapon?  
  
She did, and I plucked the Dagger from her belt, then kicked the Kilidj away, sending it skidding under the table. I shoved her into the table. “Join your friends, sit _down_.” With shaky movements and a lost look on her face, she did, and before she could complete her movement, I grabbed Anna by the collar and hauled her out of her chair, sending the woman tumbling towards Hugues with a kick to her rump. “You as well, changeling, get away from those _men_!”  
  
By 'those men', I meant Chalcondyles and Dikaios, to whom I now moved as if to shield from the minions that I had just isolated them from. As soon as Phaing had dropped her sword Imriel had turned the crossbow towards Hugues and Hrolvath, moving around to the other end of the table. “Drop those sword belts and toss them over by the wall, there, good, now the hidden blades. You as well, Marzoni.” Not 'Anna', and his glance at her shut down any possibility that her grievance against him would make any difference to him.  
  
In truth, the only grievance she could hold over him was that he had allowed Gilot to do his duty. On any other night, that memory and his guilt would have meant something to Imriel, but not this night.  
  
Chalcondyles was agitated and Dikaios was sharply focused on my every move. Either of them could have reached for a concealed weapon at that point, and had a brief chance to use them. Neither one did, I had changed the situation too swiftly for them, and I was not done yet.  
  
Merrin showed me his teeth, his puny, all-too-human teeth. “Foolish-”  
  
“Oh _do_ shut up!” I said to him with exactly the contempt I would turn on an incompetent stable hand. “I may be a junior member of this Guild, but I am still myself; Dauphine of the greatest Kingdom in the world,” I allowed a spoiled princess lilt to color my words, “and I will let you know when I wish to hear the words of some mendicant!”  
  
Chalcondyles spluttered and showed hostile disbelief. “A member, since _when_?” Dikaios was silent, pondering words like Changeling and Mendicant.  
  
“Since earlier this evening.” Imriel said, keeping his eyes on those at the far end of the table. “The third member of the Triumvirate saw to it personally, if in a somewhat rushed manner. If Sunjata were here, he could tell you exactly how long _I_ have been a member as well, but he would have had to have the permission of that selfsame person to do so.”  
  
“That person ....” Chalcondyles's question died on his lips as Imriel sheathed his sword and reached for the lamp in the middle of the table, and turned it one half rotation.  
  
“We did have a man, at the head of those stairs you just came down.” Dikaios reminded me. “What became of him?”  
  
Close to being caught flat-footed, I turned my face to Imriel, who remained impassive. “There is nobody at the top of those stairs.” The use of the present tense was a clever touch. There was indeed, at that moment, no _body_ up there, just a pinch of dust.  
  
“ _Another_ desertion?” Dikaios whispered in a strained voice to Chalcondyles. Only I was standing close enough to overhear.  
  
“I'll send for Voz.”  
  
“Please don't.” I shook my head. “His impetuousness has caused us enough difficulty tonight, yes?”  
  
“Agreed. Word of what transpires here will not leave this room until this is done!” Dikaios reached under his vestment and withdrew one of the deadly little crossbows, and set it on the table in front of him. He then put his hands in his lap, leaving us all to wonder what other weapons he might have down there. “Now, lets start sorting this all out, starting with you, Princess. I resent the fact that our third brother withheld his coupe with Prince Imriel from us, yet it is not so unusual. Since you have met, would you mind sharing that name with us?”  
  
This was the most dangerous part of the game, my hunch was based on intuition and fact in equal measure. As I mentioned, my mind was bright in a way that I had never experienced before, and the light was not only diamond-clear, but just as sharply cutting. I withdrew the paper booklet and stylus from the little pocket that had been made a part of this dress when it had still been Phaing's own, and dropped the wand into it. Moving to Chalcondyles on his left, I wrote the name and showed it him. While I did, I put the stylus back in my pocket and wrapped my fingers around the wand.  
  
If I was right, this would all be worth it. These big, greedy Fish would bite the bait, instead of biting me. If I was wrong...  
  
I could not tell what they were thinking at all until Chalcondyles gave Dikaios an almost imperceptible nod and said “Continue.”  
  
I turned to survey the table, and my eyes met Imriel, who also nodded the barest fraction of an inch. So far, so good.“Let us see what we shall see... ah, lets start with _Phaing_ here. Ironic, isn't it? Of the five conspirators here, she is the only one that is what she appears to be.”  
  
“Why you-” Hrolvath started to rise, a furious expression on his face. The shock was wearing off at the other end of the table, so Imriel did his best to restore it. With one smooth movement, he drew his sword and cracked the pommel across the back of the Skaldi's thick skull. Hrolvath fell forward, clutching at the table's smooth surface. He remained conscious somehow, and passively stared at the table for several minutes. Imriel moved to the end of the table directly opposite Dikaios, kicking the chair there out of the way. Hugues and Anna flinched as it clattered across the floor, neither of them deigned to interrupt me again. Imriel stood there, tapping the surface of the table with his sword and holding his crossbow leveled at the Guild Agents near him. He put the icing on the cake by adding; “When in the presence of Royalty, it is best to speak only when spoken too.”  
  
He had learned well from Phedre, the two members of the Triumvirate appeared to accept him as one of their own. Our trump-card, however, was Phaing herself. Her eyes were unfocused, and the expression on her maimed face was one that I clearly remember seeing once before. When my mother had discovered Imriel and I were lovers, by walking in on us. Here face had said; _this can not be happening this can not be happening this can not be HAPPENING_!  
  
It was my doing, and it had to be worth while. But my freakishly efficient mind showed me a way to cut her suffering short.  
  
“This _Dohk Alfar_ is a remnant of a bygone age, emerging from an extended hibernation to find herself alone, or nearly so. I am curious to see what she considers so special about the Chowat, I truly am. Oh, these tales of distant worlds, out there among the stars? Please, stop insulting out intelligence! This is your grab for power, plain and simple. _This_ world is your home, we have legends warning us of exactly your sort, you Fey creature. How can you explain that and still convince us that you are from some other planet? Ah, but you never gave us time to consider all that, did you? You have kept us all rushing hither and yon, feeding us lies mixed with the truth to keep us dancing to your tune, until my patron saw through your game, and sent Imriel and myself to right your wrongs.” I leaned in and glared at her, tapping the table with my wand, which sang a musical note that ordinary crystal could never produce. “It ends tonight.” Before she could answer me, I straightened up and and waved at Merrin, and nodded at Chalcondyles. “As for the rumors of a Dragon, faugh!. If Merrin exists at all, they are in this together.”  
  
“If so, they are singularly incompetent, they were both captured!” Chalcondyles did not sound mocking. He was carefully considering all this. I was using his prejudice, and Dikaios's as well, to ease him back into a less fantastic explanation for all that had happened. Back to a world that was more sensible, from his point of view.  
  
It was a yearning that I could understand, an explanation that I would have preferred not so many days ago.  
  
“Yes, captured, in the midst of a gathering of your best agents, at _her_ instigation. Phaing had already killed your people in the dungeon when we found her. Either she seduced them, of they were unaware that her bodily fluids have mind-altering affects. Even your new man Hrolvath is here, Hugues and Anna are not here by accident... pity about them. All of them had already crossed her path this last year and were replaced.  And by the by, that's not a Dragon, he's just another bad actor. Just a bag of bones, and an anal old bastard from what I have heard. Would you like his name? Allow me,” I wrote a name in my booklet curling the paper to prevent Merrin from seeing what I was writing. That was pure theater, I was praying that he could see that I wrote a name with just four letters in it.  
  
Passing the booklet open to that page to Chalcondyles, I pointed the wand at Merrin and asked; “Your _real_ name, if you please?”  
  
His face could have been carved from stone, he was so closed off that I wondered if he was even hearing us until he raised his arm. His true name was etched in the silver cuff.  
  
If he had not been paying attention, this could go badly wrong. I made my fear look like anger and barked; “You name!” and when three heartbeats went by with no further answer, I triggered the wand.  
  
The seat Merrin was sitting in abruptly ceased to be.  
  
He hit the floor and sprawled back, pain from the impact with the stone floor and shocked surprise write large on his face. He knew where the wand must have come from, and he looked towards Phaing.  
  
“No!” I leaned over the table, stroking the wand, holding it with both hands now and pointing it at the bridge of his nose. “Don't look at the witch, answer the question, dead man!”  
  
Merrin would not have been able to see Phaing from the floor, but my manic outburst did the trick. He looked at me, and answered softly; “Thal.” He put his head down, and started to gather himself to get up off the floor. “My name is Thal.... and I am a _good_ actor!”  
  
During our abbreviated meetings with Melisande and then Solon, the tale of Thal had never come up.  
  
Chalcondyles and Dikaios blinked at each other. The skin on Dikaios's face was going gray and slack, Chalcondyles was going red, with a twitch under one eye. The later turned to me and snapped; “But we all saw-”  
  
"Just stay there on the floor." I said to Merrin, and then turned my attention to the others. “Nothing that could not be duplicated with Phaing's illusions and other spells, spells she has arrogantly displayed to awe us and drag us along into her little fantasy world. We are supposed to believe a string of profanity held a Dragon at bay? Convenient what happened to her ship, just minutes after her promise of all that gold on board, wasn't it? Pity about that. did your divers find much there?”  
  
Chalcondyles brought his fist down on the table. “Not enough to make a good handful.” He hit the table again and gave Phaing a look that could have frozen water solid at 5 paces. Fortunately for her, she was sitting a little over six paces from him. She also had her face in her hand, eyes covered. Chalcondyles could have interpreted that as defeat, I knew she was hiding her reactions from him. Phaing had guessed what I was doing when Merrin had claimed the name Thal, or even sooner.  
  
I continued to bring the cronies of the Unseen Guild to more familiar ground, that of treachery, intrigue and in-fighting. This was my plan, to sow mistrust among these men, who would have never been in the same room together had not the unexpected chance at a prize like Merrin drawn them here. Oh, not Hrolvath or Hugues, or even Anna. They were merely my tools, accessories, my real targets were Dikaios and Chalcondyles. If I could make them fear what the 3rd member of the triumvirate was up to, they would go running to their ships to retreat to their lairs, away from their rival's domain... and civil war within the Guild would be inevitable.  
  
And, hopefully, I would not have to kill any more people tonight.  
  
“As for the those three at the end of the table, at least one of them is Phaing's creature, and quite possibly all three of them.”  
  
They began to protest all at once. Anna raised her hands and began to chatter in high-pitched Caerdicci, Hrolvath snarling at me while holding his head, and Hugues beseeching Chalcondyles directly with eyes that promised anything a man could desire. Imriel slammed the flat of his sword down, and at the same instant Dikaios commanded. “Silence! You will all get your chance, but for now, the lady has the floor.” The elder Guildsman both nodded for me to continue.  
  
So many things were coming together at that moment. Among them was a lifetime of training in the Palace that allowed me to make a mask of my face. Otherwise, the exultation at having those men in the metaphorical palm of my had would have been clear as glass. I bowed my head to them.

  
“Thank you. Now, Hrolvath is clearly one of Phaing's own, he'd not even given you a final answer about joining this little thing of ours until after he had acquired a copy of Phaing's message to us regarding Carthage, did he?” That was a guess on my part, but an easy one. Phedre or Imriel would have sensed something if he had already been a Guild Member when they first met him. “Hugues, you look so astounded to find that Imriel chose wisely and joined... but you _should_ have know, shouldn't you? Despite whatever risks you knowing the truth entailed, you should have known. Unless your minder is playing a double game, you would have _had_ to know. Changeling I name you, one of the Witch's creations. Duplicates of the people originally recruited, who are now either locked away somewhere, or at the bottom of the ocean. Flawed duplicates, I suspect, and not privy to all of the original's secrets.” I turned to the elder men. “Phaing's magic is battle-born, dangerous but not all that sophisticated. Certainly not as fine as what Solon is capable of weaving. Oh,” I turned back to Anna, and then glanced at the felt roll, still open and displayed those artifacts, “what's this?” I plucked out an ordinary sewing needle, and passed it to Chalcondyles. “Ah-ha, I'm afraid that would not have done much good at all, would it?”  
  
“You put that there, I saw you!” Hugues had indeed seen me do just that. After I had split my skirt, I had been looking for one, and found it in the room where we had killed those 4 guards. When Phaing had refused stitches, I had slipped into the spiderweb of my dress, thinking she would reconsider later. I had dropped it into the collection of evil tools when Dikaios and Chalcondyles had looked at each other. Hugues declaration came out in a panic, and did him little good.

"Yes, of course." I said in a mocking tone. "I carry one all the time, right along with the rest of the sewing kit I have on me." I looked down at my form-fitting dress, and shrugged. "Or, perhaps not."  
  
“For agents of the Unseen Guild, you three don't seem to know a great deal, do you?” Imriel said. “However, if all you came here to do was murder the triumvirate and put Phaing in charge of this whole thing, you may have supposed that you knew just enough.”  
  
He had been silent for so long they may have forgotten that he was anything but a man holding weapons. His instinct was perfect; we had not discussed this, but since I had named him my senior in the Guild, he had to inject something into the discussion. His introduction of the threat of assassination braced Chalcondyles and Dikaios visibly. As I had hoped, and as is the case with so many such people, their greatest fear was that their own creation might turn against them someday.  
  
Anna spoke out before anyone could stop her. “Liar! We know more than you do!”  
  
She was telling the truth, much to my chagrin. Here was something we had to head off, quickly.  
  
“Truly? Then what is in that chest?” Imriel asked casually. “The red one in the corner.” My heart leaped as I followed his gaze to the one shadowy part of the room. Phaing's chest had been salvaged and brought here. It lay in the corner under the stairs, with many scratches about the false lock. Some of the guild had taken turns at attempting to open it, and failed. Nobody in the room had an answer for him. “Love, would you mind?”  
  
I nodded, smiling at him, and then turned to Chalcondyles. “Eight skulls, all Bone-priests.” I informed him and walked quickly across the room, pushed on the studs and dumped the contents out on the floor. “Retrieved at Rhodos from a barrel-chested Hellene that she sometimes pursues an affair with, and a relative of one of Darsanja's victims, I believe.” Returning to the table, I shook my head at the collection of dangerous metal shards Anna had laid out, and dropped the package onto the seat of the chair that had been Anna's, sliding it in until the char's back was against the edge of the table. “Tsk, something things can't just be left laying about.”  
My voice echoed in a silent room.  
  
“Dauphine, please,” Anna broke the silence, “I don't doubt you anymore, but this is all wrong, as are your suspicions about me. Someone has made a mistake!”  
  
“Yes, your Witch did. Her greed and lust for power allowed us to bring her here to her doom.” By 'us', I meant Imriel and myself, and he nodded to confirm it. “Doomed , she and her fake Dragon both.” I stepped up to Phaing and pulled her hand away from her face. “I don't hear any clever denials from you.” She spat weakly on my bodice and gave me a sneer as best she could with her injured face partly covered with lace bandage. That bandage had been turned red on one side, and I reached up to undo the knot holding it in place, waving the wand in front of her face. Phaing held perfectly still as the bandage fell away, revealing the gash in her cheek.  
  
It was my turn to sneer. “Without her spells, she isn't even a competent warrior. Just a little fey illusionist with the instincts of a petty thug.”

  
Hrolvath chortled “I knew it! Those men you bested in Skaldia, it was all trickery!”  
  
“What exactly is that device you have there?” Chalcondyles inquired, his eyes on the wand as I stepped back from the table.  
  
“Something I have been keeping secret, and aren't you glad I did?' In a moment of bravado, I laid it on the table ia few feet front of him. “It is an artifact held by my family since the days Eula walked this Earth, one of several, and you are the first non-Courcel to see it in all that time. No, I wouldn't touch it if I were you, I honestly don't know what would happen if someone without a touch of Angeline blood in their veins were to handle it. It was a matter of concern when my turn to take it up came about, yet as you can see, I survived to master it.”  
  
“Another thing you knew nothing of.” Imriel said pointedly to Hugues, who seemed ready to begin weeping with frustration.  
  
“This isn't _right_!” the traitor protested.  
  
“An understatement, I should say.” Dikaios intoned, his voice deep and thoughtful. “It has been a long day, but there will be no rest until we settle this matter. Leon, you have more of your scribe's tools?” Chalcondyles nodded. “Would you be good enough to get us some more quills and paper, and we shall see what we are dealing with here. Henceforth none of you will utter a word unless bid by me to do so.” He glanced at Merrin, who was sitting very still on the floor with his legs drawn up, as would a lowly servant awaiting punishment. “If you have any hope of surviving this night, Thespian, you will stay as you are, and cease looking at Phaing. You and she are excluded from what follows now. The rest of you, and this includes you, Prince Imriel, take the paper and ink that the Dauphine will distribute to you. You will write down the proper signals that you D'Angelines were good enough _not_ to let out when you entered this room. You will add the names of your minders and contacts if you wish to add weight to your case, and prove yourselves to us beyond the shadow of any doubts.”  
  
Dikaios's hand came up from beneath the table, another of those deadly little crossbows held rock-steady in his hand. His free hand tapped the other one, which was still on the table where he had placed it earlier. “The accuracy of what you write will determine who leaves this room alive.”  
  
I had made a serious mistake...


	2. 41

 

 

 

41

  
  
  
_A house without doors_ , I have been described that way, and I put my mind to being just that.  
  
Chalcondyles pulled a satchel up off the floor and put it on the table, half covering the wand. Something about his posture dared me to notice that significant little fact, so I ignored it as he removed three bottles of ink and 3 fresh sheets of paper. “This is all that there is, Imriel will have to make do with what you have in your pocket.” He favored me with a falsely indulgent smile, and taking the papers from him I unveiled the crossbow held in his other hand. I'd seen no clue that he had even reached for it. The thing was not pointed at me, not _precisely_ , yet the threat was implicit.

  
I nodded in return at his thin smile, and turned away. Chills ran up and down my spine as I walked down the table with papers in one hand and ink & quills in the other, and distributed them.  
  
“Carefully.” Dikaios advised one and all. Imriel nodded, and set his Crossbow and sword down on the table, as indeed he must to take up the stylus and booklet I gave him. I had already given the trio of agents their papers, Anna and Hugues were scribbling away, and after some hesitation, Hrolvath began to jot a few things down.  
  
Standing by Imriel's side, I had nothing to do during some of the very longest moments of my life. I did not dare look directly at either Dikaios or Chalcondyles, nor could I even glance at what the agents were writing, I angled my head downwards and watched Imriel write over his shoulder. He paused often to scan the agents, as if still watchful of them, and gave himself time to think of something to write. He did not sit down to write, and over his hunched shoulder I observed what he printed in the book;  
_Sunjata, Melisande, do no harm_. He flipped the page, and wrote in a more courtly script; _may the maggots in your ass devour your brains._ Flipping the page again he added; _Sidonie; make SURE they see this one last, and get that wand back_!  
  
I did not nod until Imriel handed the booklet to me, the others had already finished and Phaing had begun a little diversion of her own. She was examining her hands thoughtfully, and held the back of one up for the elders to see. Too soon! I wanted to shout to her as she indicated the finger from which one of her rings was missing. I snatched up the papers from Hrolvath and Hugues as Phaing made and impatient gesture at Chalcondyles, questioning what had happened to her ring.  
  
“ _Carefully_!” Dikaios said sharply, pointing his crossbow and its poisoned dart at Anna as I came up behind her to collect her paper. He had interpreted Phaing's moves as a diversion from what Anna could be up to. In hindsight, it was not such a bad deduction. My mind was searching for a way to recover the wand, and I had come too close to Anna as I reached for her paper. All three women in the room froze in place for a heartbeat, and then Anna showed her hands, palms facing Dikaios, and slowly placed them on the table. I snatched up the paper she had written on and huffed in a way that I hoped sounded like asperity as I passed behind her chair and the _Alfar_. Chalcondyles had his weapon on Anna, and shook his head at her as if to say 'amateurs!'. His empty hand came up to accept the small pile of papers.  
  
For her part, Phaing slumped back in her chair, stroking the tiny onyx shards on the last ring remaining on her left hand... and then she lunged for the wand!  
  
Too far, she was much too far from it to make the grab, I thought. I did not see Chalcondyles's dart fly, but it was a clean miss, thudding into the back of the seat. Dikaios's shot I _did_ see, and the dart curved curiously around Phaing, and thudded into the seat next to the other dart.  
  
“ _this one makes me more difficult to hit_ ”  
  
If so, it was the perfect time to finally see proof of that. Phaing could never have made it all the way to the wand, and she wasn't trying to. She twisted about and slid under the under the table, near to where I had kicked her scimitar. I did not worry about her, there were too many other things happening at once.  
  
Dikaios had snatched up his second crossbow, but Imriel fired his first. His shot did not sound like the others. His bowstring had broken when he pulled the trigger and the dart flew just a few feet before skipping to a halt in front of where Anna was sitting. Dikaios smiled, Imriel had just revealed himself to be no member of this Guild, as he must have suspected. He fired his second crossbow at Imriel... and nothing happened. While that weapon had been laying on it's side, and Dikaios had been tapping it idly, the little dart had fallen out. An old man with much to ponder, he'd not been playing attention to his weapons the way a warrior would.  
  
So many things were happening at the same time, I later pieced together some of it. Chalcondyles pulled another of his little crossbows from under his vestments, and then dropped it on the table. Inexplicably, he began to convulse, foam boiling up from between his lips and his face turning purple as his bulging eyes sank into his skull. Dikaios plucked up Chalcondlyes's falling crossbow and fired it at Merrin, but his shot went wide as he was grabbed by his ankles and yanked down out of sight, cracking his chin on the edge of the table as he went.  
  
Phaing had found something besides her Kilidj under the table, there were also those little metal shards sitting on the chair I had pushed in. She plucked a handful at random and drove them into Chalcondyles's leg. The rest, she saved for Dikaios.  
  
Imriel had been raising his sword as his dart skittered uselessly down the table. Hrolvath sprang into action, coming up out of his chair and pinning Imriel's sword to the table with his left forearm. With the same fluid motion, his right arm hooked around the chair he'd been sitting in and brought it up over his head and crashing down on top of Imriel, dashing him to the floor. Hugues pounced him, kicking him and struggling to keep Imriel's hands away from his daggers. Hrolvath had taken a nasty gash to his arm, but the sword was still on the table. He took it up, his left arm pressed to his chest, and stepped around the table, calling to Hugues; “Just hold him down!”  
  
All of those things that I have just described were barely noticed by me, even Imriel's deadly peril. Anna Marzoni had picked the dart from the table as soon as it had stopped moving and came at me, the dark and deadly tip of that dart pointed at my breast. She was smiling, and it was not a pretty smile. She wanted to kill me, so that Imriel could feel the devastation that had visited her when Gilot was taken from her.  
  
Or so she wanted me to believe.  
  
She came in fast and low, stabbing at me and kicking the stiletto out of my hand just as I had snatched it free of its sheath. Years of training had made her something of an assassin, her fighting maneuvers outclassed mine, but she did not finish me off. Eyes glittering, she grabbed at the papers.  
  
The papers...  
Here I have to admit that I did not realize the value of those documents until that moment. Never before have I done so to anyone save for Imriel. I do so here for you, my children's children, lest you come to think that I was some sort of Demi-Goddess of clever intrigues, and attempt to live up to an impossible standard. T'was providence that gave to me the passwords and names of the Guild agents in three countries, or more. Two thirds of the Triumvirate may be dead or dying, but the rest of that organization was still alive and well... and much of it was in my hand. The treasure it represented was beyond priceless, and it energized me even more than the preservation of my own life could.

  
I drew the papers away from her, back away from her grasping hand and turning on one heel. Anna lunged, and tripped over my other foot. My shove pushed her right into the frothing, twitching body of Chalcondyles. The chair tipped over backwards, sending them both to the floor in a tangle of arms and legs.  
  
While sheltered, my life has been an active one, and I am not entirely useless when it come to physical matters. Years of tussles with my energetic sister has seen to that.  
  
A gray blur launched itself across the table at where Imriel lay, and I picked up the wand, intending to help him. I never had the chance. Anna freed herself of Chalcondyles and came at me again with the venomous dart so swiftly that she would have had me. At that moment, the room was filled with the most hideous noise that any of us had ever heard.  
  
I have heard men dying, at Kynos I had heard how they screamed when impaled on swords, crushed under falling horses, or when their limbs were severed. This was none of those, it was an ululation that did not even sound human, and it was coming from under the table we were standing next to. Merrin? No, Phaing was under there, with Dikaios, and those enscorceled needles. The _Alfar_ came rolling out from under the table, holding her ears, forcing Anna to check her rush towards me lest she be tripped again.  
  
I had half a heartbeat, and it was enough. I threw the papers in Anna's face, grabbed the collar of her tunic, and slammed the blunt end of the wand into her forehead just above the bridge of her nose. Anna collapsed and landed bonelessly on the floor.  
  
I fell to me knees as well, staring at the bloody gouge Anna's dart had made along my forearm. “Oh no.... ”  
  
Phaing sat up next to me. She took one look at my arm and grabbed my right hand, wrapping it around my elbow and making me squeeze hard. Her other hand was on my wrist, she pulled my forearm to her mouth and put her mouth to my wound so that she could suck the poison out. Impulsive to the end, she did little good and began to re-open her wounded cheek, which had just begun to close. Phaing held my wrist to prevent me from doing the same thing, all I would have done was distribute the poison to other parts of my body, and reached behind her to pick the dart up. She eyed it closely, and then brought it to her mouth. With a puzzled look, she bit it, twice, and then sniffed. Quivering with fear, I could not understand what she was doing. Shaking her head, she released my wrist and put her hand to her cheek that she might speak.  
  
“Relax. Stupid me, I don't know why I thought this one would be poisoned, sitting on that workbench.” She held it up for me to see. “Its just a practice dart to test the weapons with.” She half-smiled and slipped the dart into my pocket. By her lights, it would make a fine souvenir.  
  
To complete, and to perfect my moment of joy, Imriel crouched behind me and covered my shoulders with his hands. “Is everything alright, my love?”  
  
Merrin had launched himself at Imriel's attackers, the blur was himself clearing the table and landing on Hrolvath. The Skaldi tumbled across the floor and fetched up against the wall while Merrin turned on Hugues. Grabbing the muscular agent by his upper arms, the Dragon in a man's shape hurled Hugues at the staircase. The railings of those stairs were supported by artful latices carved from sheets of stone half an inch thick. Hugues crashed right through it and his body fetched up, half way _up_ the stairs. Merrin had then grabbed Hrolvath by the ankles and dashed him to the floor as a man would swing a little snake.  
  
Seeing the results of what Merrin had done whilst I was busy with Anna, I started to understand just how physically powerful the Dragon still was, compressed into the shape and size of a man. All through the night, he must have been withholding that, bidding his time despite the abuse raining down on him.  
  
He walked towards us, tapping his wrist-cuffs together, and looking at the ones still on Phaing. “No Keys?”  
  
“No time.” Phaing smiled up at him, wonder in her eyes. “Hello... its really you, isn't it? Your all better now.” Hand still at her cheek, her smile broadened. “Told ya' so.”  
  
Merrin checked his steps, and without a glance at me, he said to Phaing “We need to talk.”  
  
“Damn right we do.” Her smile faded and she squinted up at him. “ _Nigglette_?”  
  
Merrin did not seem to know what she was talking about for a moment, and then he sighed. “Oh, _that_. I was trying to keep up, trading insults with you is no mean feat. It was really all that came to mind at moment.”  
  
“Wow, oh great, and he finds a way to make it even worse!”  
  
Merrin cleared his throat. “Well, you called me... _selfish_?”  
  
Imriel wanted to say something, but he was suppressing a chuckle at them both and trying to express his gratitude that I was safe at the same time. After what we had just put ourselves through, Merrin and Phaing's banter sounded more humorous than it actually was. “Time is short.” I reminded them, and allowed Imriel to help me to my feet. Merrin held out a hand to Phaing, but she was already rolling backwards, and scooping up the papers as she went.  
  
Phaing tossed the booklet to me and stacked the documents together, looking at me with an admiring shake of the head. “... call _me_ reckless again?” And to Merrin; “Have you ever seen anything like this?”  
  
“I have never _heard_ of anything like this.” From the tone of his voice, he was looking at me. “Its a pity that not a soul can ever know if it.”  
  
Phaing nodded as she stuffed those incredibly valuable papers into Chalcondyles's satchel and shoved it across the floor to me. Just like that, I don't think that she even considered keeping them for herself. “Goes wit'out sayin'-” She put her hand to her cheek again. “-not one of these people can leave this place alive and free of our control.”  
  
Merrin stepped around us and nudged Anna with his toe. “This one yet lives.” His tone suggested that he thought that this might be the result of a mistake.  
  
Imriel shouldered him aside and went straight to work on making certain she stayed that way. I told Merrin; “She has a daughter! Belinda is still in this building, or...”  
  
“Or tracking Joscelin and Phedre, if not our Marines.” After passing that priceless satchel to me, Phaing had gone to the grotesquely contorted bodies of Chalcondyles and Dikaios. “Dead and deader, these are. Where are your people?” she asked as she went to work emptying their pockets.  
  
_Our_ people, she meant Joscelin and Phedre, and our Marines. The warm clarity that had been blazing in my mind had faded like the setting sun, and left men shaking and slow to react. Phaing had time to collect everything the dead men had and Merrin turned to me, and then Imriel. “You, we, are _alone_ here?”  
  
In no way did Merrin approve of our audacity.  
  
I roused myself and went to the table, pulling two sheets of fresh paper out of the satchel.”Phaing, can you manage your message spell? Its important.”  
  
“Hold my face shut for me.” Her eyes told me that she had doubts about the necessity of this, especially regarding the second one being addressed to Ti-Phillipe, yet she moved swiftly and efficiently. I was crouched over her back, holding her cheek and dictating two lines for each letter, and she sent them off with both of them hoping that they would reach the person her voice told them to. Up and away they fluttered, again moving so swiftly that they were difficult to see as they left the room. They left the only way they could, up the curricular stairs. My eye attempted to track them, and in doing so I noticed something that made my blood run cold.  
  
Hugues was nowhere to be seen.


	3. 42

 

  

 

 

42

Merrin had barred the doors and was helping Imriel tend to Anna. His contribution was limited to tearing strips of her clothing away that he used to bind her wrists and elbows behind her, and a crude gag. Anna was coming around, slowly, and then more quickly as Imriel tapped her forehead with his dagger.  
Neither of them were facing the stairs. Burly, rugged, farm-raised Hugues had shaken off his injuries and left without drawing any attention.

“Trouble!” Phaing snatched up her Kilidj and dagger from the floor and sprinted for the stairs. She wanted to have a look, but I could hear the alarm being sounded up above us.

“Phaing, no time!” I called to her. She obediently changed course and ran around the table to scoop up Hrolvath's sword belt. When she returned she dropped it at Merrin's feet. The Dragon had picked Anna up with a hand holding her under her chin with the ease of a man lifting a Cat the same way.

“You listen to me, Anna of the evil needles. The Prince tells me we are leaving with you alive because you have a daughter here. However, if you do anything to impede us, I will rip your head out by the roots, scrape that crud out that you call your brains and use you skull for a commode bowl, which is obviously what the gods intended it for in the first place!” He strapped the belt on. “But only if I can beat the Princess and her wand to you. It appears you will be in her care.”

… and I had thought Phaing was one for making brutal threats.  I stepped up and put a hand on Anna's shoulder. “Dragon.” I asked Merrin, nodding at the belt. “You have some skill with the blades?”

“None.” He walked to the table and picked up two heavy chairs, holding them by a leg as if they were clubs. “And I don't plan to use it, I merely thought one of them might need a spare.” He nodded to Phaing and Imriel, who were unbarring the door.

That was the moment another alarm began to sound, a bell ringing somewhere outside, the gate perhaps.

“The rope, or the front door?” Imriel asked Phaing.

“They must have found the rope, and even if not,” she glanced at Anna, “Front door.... no, the Gallery. Doors to the curtain-wall should be there, and that gets us over the gatehouse.“

There was no argument, even from Merrin. Phaing took the hand from her face and and put a two-handed grip on her Kilidj, nodding at Imriel. As one, they kicked the doors wide open. Five Guards had just reached the landing holding spears leveled straight at us , they never had a chance against Imriel and Phaing. The _Alfar_ went in fast and low, my Imriel more deliberately. standing tall right behind her. Men holding spears jostled each other as they struggled to fight along the same axis. Imriel was a blur as he swept their spears up and out of Phaing's way. They backpedaled, desperately bringing Bucklers between them and their attackers while reaching for their swords. I could see that one of them would not be quick enough, Phaing was already upon him.

As I emerged from the meeting room pushing Anna ahead of me, I looked the other way, where men coming down from above would appear. Twice as many more came pelting down the stairs and rounded the balustrade, the men in the lead had full armor on, and those behind had crossbows. These were not the unreliable little tools of assassination, but loaded and cocked weapons of war.

Merrin stepped out at my side, took one look at them and hurled one of the chairs at the Soldiers with such force that it virtually exploded when it hit the man in the lead. That one was killed instantly, and the men on either side of him were felled by the fragments. Merrin bellowed at the remainder, swinging the other chair around over his head as he feinted a rush towards them. Nothing more was required, those guards turned and fled back the way they came. Only two fired their bolts, uselessly. One thudded into the door we had left behind, the other ricocheted off the floor and lodged in Anna's wooden boot heel. Anna was naturally upset at her close call and tried to skitter sideways as a nervous Colt would. Impatiently, I brought my bare foot down on the shaft of of bolt and shoved her on ahead of me.  
While I had been looking away from the landing, the fighting had moved down the stairs, out of sight. Only one dead guard lay before us, and there came a crashing sound... armored bodies falling down the stairs, and Imriel's hoarse shouts.

Merrin did not like the sound of all that. “Phaing?”

Imriel called out; “She's at the bottom of the stairs, I think her neck is broken!”

Merrin threw the 2nd chair at a poor angle that accomplished nothing aside from encouraging the Guards above us to quicken their retreat. He then sprinted past me using brute force as a substitute for agility... I swear his fingers left divots in the marble railing.

When I turned the corner,I could see that she was dead, or nearly so.  
When Imriel and Phaing had laid into them, the Guards had attempted a fighting withdrawal, rather than show such expert warriors their backs. Phaing had pressed them too tightly, and one man with an battleaxe had managed to hook her behind the leg and drag him with her as he tumbled down the stairs. A storybook Elf would have nimbly extracted herself and gone skipping down the railing... Phaing lay crushed between two dead guards in a contortion that was unnatural even for her. What told me this was serious was the fact that the fighting was still going on, Imriel was hard at work seeing the last two guards on their way, and she was making no move to join in.

She wasn't moving at all.

Merrin was at her side in a flash. I followed, making Anna take a seat and and then stepping closer. Phaing was looking down at herself, face going pale and slack. She blinked, and my heart soared until I heard what she was saying in a very soft, calm voice; “Now? _Why._... oh.... oh.... alright, alright.” She wasn't talking to us, nor anyone in this world until Merrin touched her lightly. “Hey, Merri, its alright, your better now. 'S all good -.”

“You _stop right there_! Don't you go anywhere unless you want me to follow right behind you!” He rounded on me with eyes blazing, the pupils going from round to slits and pointing at the collar as he begged me; “Use the wand, I can save her!” I had the wand ready in my right hand, but I hesitated. Merrin misunderstood why I did, without his mental powers he was lost, small, and as fallible as any man. With a strangled groan, he bowed swiftly and low, touching his forehead to my dirty foot. “I swear to obey you in all things at all times!”

What an idiot! Merrin thought I was hesitating because once freed he could kill us all at a whim! Well, in hindsight, that may have been something to ponder, but with Phaing's very soul ready to take flight, it was beneath my notice.

“No, damnit!” I raised him up by kicking his head up with my foot hooked under his chin. “Help me _aim_ this thing!”

I had already taken a risk when I had destroyed the chair he had been sitting in. How many more times could Merrin withstand near-misses from this diabolical thing? The man at the top of the circular stairs had been disintegrated entirely, armor and all, and the look on Merrin's face told me he had no idea what I was talking about.

“Aim small, miss small.” Phaing's voice was barely audible. Worse yet, she sounded distant, barely interested in our forlorn effort to save her life.

  
Merrin brought the cuffs together under his collar with a clack, and once more implored me; “ _Just do it_!”

I saw the lettering on the cuffs and the collar. Aim small, miss small. I chose one letter and triggered the wand. For a mercy, the odds of seven in ten worked in our favor, all three times, and Phaing's last sight in this world was _not_ that of Merrin crumbling to dust before her eyes.

My indecision had not lasted long, but Phaing didn't have very much time. Without a word to me, Merrin flashed to her side and implored her; “You can't loose consciousness, stay awake so that your nervous system can guide me. Sushulana! Don't go!”

“...won't go far- _ghnnnnh_!” Her dreamy reply was cut off by a sudden, harsh intake of breath, the sort of sound that people make when their lungs are nearly empty and they want to scream. Merrin was levitating her body, held in just the same position it had been crushed into, and repairing her body at the same time. _Repairing_ , that is how he put it himself, not healing so much as putting things back the way they had been before. Knitting a quilt is the best way I can describe his later words of explanation.

At the time, all I could understand was a joy that made me feel 100 pounds lighter as her arms and legs started to move, then shot out and vibrated as Merrin straightened her body. I could not see her face, and I was glad, her body's gyrations communicated all the soundless agony I cared to witness. Sweat was pouring off her body before the Dragon was done with her, there seemed to be something ruthless about his methods, but her color had returned by the time he lowered her into his arms.

“Relax, sleep now, its done.” Merrin whispered to her, and Phaing promptly went limp. He looked to me, able to turn his head for the first time since entering this place, red marks still on his neck. “You have my gratitude.” He glanced significantly at my foot. “That was no trick, what would you have of me?”

Imriel had seen the last of the Guards off with wounds that he hoped would make them loose interest in the fighting. He took in the tableau, checking his steps towards me as he saw Merrin free of the silver and cradling Phaing in his arms... and hearing his words to me. Imriel sent a glowing smile my way and asked Merrin; “Where is Voz?”

The Dragon's eyes lost focus, but his voice was clear; “Not in this building. Few remain...” His head snapped around towards the gate. “One awaits us there, with crossbow. You have something he wants.”

“Something?” I had the satchel slung over one shoulder, and I clutched it protectively without thinking.

“ _Someone_.” Merrin corrected himself. He turned again, and favored our captive with a smile calculated to loosen the bowels of the bravest warrior. “Hello, dear Anna.”

 

         * * * *

 

Anna Marzoni had engaged in dalliances in recent years, but such was the trauma of loosing Gilot that she had allowed no attachments to form. None that she had been _aware_ of. A Trader by the name of Kynan had become enamored of her, and had been wise enough to keep his feelings to himself. He had donned armor and weapons when summoned to this Fortress, and the required black mask, and played the role of the loyal Guildsman. Now, rather than flee with the professional soldiers, he had taken up a pair of loaded crossbows and awaited us in the Gallery. The gash Imriel had left in his leg crippled him, he would not be able to save himself once he engaged us, it was his do-or-die stand intended to save Anna.

Merrin explained all this to Anna, who could scarce credit what she was hearing.

There was no reason for me to doubt any of it, and I understood that Merrin could be the key to ending all the violence in this episode of our lives. I pocketed the wand so that I could draw my last dagger, and cut Anna's bonds. “Go to him, find your Belinda, and get away from this place. Turn yourselves in at Melisande's Villa by sunset, and if you think you can escape this island...” I nodded at Merrin. Anna had seen him swear his oath to me, and she knew rumors of his powers. Once she found Kynan where he said he would be, she would have to believe the rumors.

“It _would_ be best for you all if you did not make me come looking for you all.” Once she was gone, Merrin raised an eyebrow to me. “More of the extravagant D'Angeline mercy I have heard so much about?”

“Reap as you sow.” Imriel answered as I went to him, checking for wounds. He had none, the splashes of blood on his arms and face were not his own. Still burdened with Phaing's limp body, Merrin glanced back up the stairs, and then stepped past us towards the exit. “Tarry a moment, Dragon, they will need time to get out of our path.”

“They had better move quickly, friends of yours are at the Gate.”

“At the gate?” Visions of Joscelin and Phedre in the midst of storming the Gatehouse on our behalf propelled us past Merrin. We were being foolish, he could have told us all that was happening out there, had we but paused to ask. In the Gallery, we nearly tripped over discarded crossbows. Kynan had chosen the site of his last stand poorly, we would have run right into him. He would have been lucky to get even a single shot off.

Atop the wall, the air was refreshingly cool on our faces, and not a single member of the Unseen Guild to be seen. There was no sign of fighting, no clash of arms sounded anywhere. Had we just escaped from an empty Keep?  
Imriel and I paused halfway down the wall to the Gates, looking at each other while Merrin trotted up, his eyes on the harbor.

The first sound that reached us was a triumphant shout from the top of the gatehouse. Leander was there, pointing at us and flanked by kinsmen aiming drawn bows up at empty battlements. Joscelin appeared at the end of the wall, standing tall and arms slack as his sides, his posture showing amazement at our good fortune... and his own. What a difficult rescue this must have seemed before hand, and what a simple thing it had become. He waved us over to him, and turned to help Phedre herself up onto the wall. I can't say exactly why, but it surprised us both to see her there. When she saw us with Merrin and Phaing in tow, she smiled broadly and let her head fall back, her happiness shining up at the stars as would the rising sun, now just an hour away.

Joscelin looked past us at the daunting sight of Merrin unbound, and at Phaing curled up in his arms. “She's not...”

“Its been a difficult night, but she will wake soon.” Merrin's voice was strong, his old resonance had returned. The difficulties he had endured meant nothing now, the Dragon was himself again. He was about to say something more when strident horns began to blow in the harbor, drawing our eyes to the docks.

One of the Guild's ships was raising sail, and trying to push away from the dock.

“There they go.” Joscelin explained his remark; “We saw a handful of men escaping down a rope when we arrived. Once we found that the Gatehouse was empty, I allowed the Marines to pursue them. Too late, I fear. Those horns, why would they sound ... _there_! There she is!”

A great ship loomed out of the misty darkness, all sails aloft to catch any wind they could. It rudely came alongside the smaller Guild ship and pinned it alongside the dock it had been trying to shove off from. Echoes of cracking wood and combat again assailed out ears.

The _Twilight Rhapsody_ had arrived.

Merrin gave us all a sardonic look. “Two weeks?”

“Two _days_.” Imriel corrected him. “Oh, the damage wasn't all that bad, and Captain Etrigan can be an impatient man. He had already sounded out the hull before we left to take Phaing's ship, and found only minor damage. I doubt he stayed in Rhodos any longer than he needed to load aboard the lumber required for the repairs and to sort things out with the Port Authority.”

Merrin sighed. “And L'Indiscreet's crew non the wiser. Princess, the message you had Sushulana send them was well done. Few Captains would enter an unfamiliar harbor by night. Not without a very good reason.”

Phedre stepped in closer to Merrin, looking at Sushulana and the Dragon carrying her. “Still alive...” she murmured in a wondering tone. She took up Sushulana's dangling arm and tested her pulse before laying it to rest in the _Alfar_ 's lap. “Alive and well?”

Merrin nodded gravely, not understanding her wonderment, not precisely. “Yes. Many close calls did we have. However,” he looked into my eyes, “the leadership provided us was adequate to the task at hand.”

High praise indeed, but there was no time to enjoy or even contemplate it. “Merrin, what is happening down there?”

He responded to my query by closing his eyes. Without even turning his head that way, he spoke; “Hugues is shocked that is ruse did not work.”

“Hugues!” Phedre whispered, head down and clutching at Joscelin's shoulder. “ _Ti-Phillipe_.”

“They fight, these Guilds-men are most resolute now, they fear capture. Ah, Voz falls at last, it ends soon. Your Marines a-foot have sealed off their dock, there is no escape.... yes, it is over.” He opened his eyes, still fixed on mine. “Many have fallen.” Shouts still echoed up from the dock, the ringing of metal on metal ended as Merrin finished speaking.

“Go, do what you can for them.” He snorted, glancing up at the Palace, and then back at me. “Go!" I repeated more forcefully.  "Whatever happens next, it would be better if you were not a part of it.”

Bound by his oath, there was little Merrin could do. He handed Sushulana off to Imriel and said softy; “Upper story, East balcony.” Without another word or look at any of us, he vaulted off the wall and disappeared into the shadows.


	4. 43

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**43**

 

 

One more grim task yet lay before us.

“Hello Leander.” I called out as he came, jogging up to us with a grin that flashed all of his teeth at us. “I require your assistance, will you escort us to the Palace?”

“Anywhere you like! Please, what I came for was to urge you from this wall, follow me.” He cast a worried glance at the Fortress. Leander had no reason to know how empty it was now, and feared those Guild crossbows. Once he had us inside the dimly lit Gatehouse he relaxed. “The Palace you say? Just the place I would recommend, and I see you have the good package,” he nodded at Sushulana, “the other...?” Leander noted that none of us had relaxed.

“Merrin is tending the wounded down at the docks.” Leander's schooling in hiding his reactions failed him, and I pressed on. “We make haste now, I need all your people with me now, and get us to Melisande.”

He nodded and quickly lead us down a flight of narrow stairs, and back out into the night air again, outside that death-haunted Fortress at last. Leander did not question taking us to Melisande at all. Had we intended her harm, we would hardly have requested an escort from a clan more loyal to her than to our very throne.

There was no carriage or horse outside. Leander shrugged; “We came in silence, it would be quickest to walk... were it not for....” He was looking at Sushulana.

“Oh, she's awake.” Imriel winked, and hefted her body with a touch of rude humor.

“ _Urff._.. my feet needed a rest. Can you blame … me... hi Joscelin, Phedre. What?” Phedre was getting a good look at the left side of Sushulana's face for the first time. Her torn cheek was healing well, there was no puckering that would leave a scar. Only a shallow red line marked where her wound had been, fading as we watched. Phedre blinked, there had been no mark there when she had last seen Sushulana, and now days or weeks of healing seemed to have taken place.

Imriel set Sushulana down on her feet and she immediately asked; “Merrin?”

“I sent him to the docks to help with the wounded, to heal them.”

“ _Heal_ them?” she asked, as if I had said something that she could not understand.

“Of course.” Imriel put a hand to the back of her head. His fingers traveled downwards, gently testing the wholeness of her spinal column. “Moments ago you had a broken neck, and now you are … you _are_ feeling alright, aren't you? Gave us a terrible fright, your Dragon most of all.”

“Yes, fine, thanks.” She held up her hand, the one with the ring that could, slowly, regenerate her body.

Phedre was rubbing her temples with both hands. “Your _neck_ was broken?”

I grabbed Sushulana's ring-finger and made her look at me. “ _This_? He used this to guide him, didn't he? Gods damn it! Will he be able to do anything for them, or will he double back and-”

“Shhh.” with startling gentleness she put her other hand over mine. “A promise is a promise, he will do his best. He _will_.”

“ _Sushulana_.” I whispered, giving her the name again. She did seem different, had wicked Phaing been left behind forever?

“Princess Sidonie.” Her eyes flicked back and forth. “I look forward to getting re-acquainted with you all, but we are keeping these people waiting.”

Leander's kin were gathered round us, three women in Huntsman's garb holding bows, and a pair of men wearing armor of the ancient Hellenic pattern. That armor looked odd to me, but it did not restrict their movement and made little noise. Leander wore something similar under his cloak. While fascinated by our exchange, he was impatient to go, nodding at the night sky as it faded towards gray.

We had one last goal to hurry towards, one last emergency to attend to before we could catch our breaths, and return to a more human pace in our lives.

 

 

 

***

Our bare feet were aching and the sky had turned a deep blue by the time we reached the Palace. There was no guile in our approach, we simply walked straight to the door and pushed it wide as a tall majordomo briefly attempted to begin the formalities. Imriel braced him against the wall while Sushulana helped herself to his sword. Her Kilidj had been left behind on that bloody staircase, and yet she had not mentioned that fact nor even looked back that way. The man she has disarmed was then shoved aside. 

Knowing nothing else of our reason for coming here, Leander left two of his kin to guard the door and then showed us to the chamber where Melisande could be found. We found her on a Tiberian couch, her upper body propped up at a comfortable angle and wide awake. She seemed pleased to see us, smiling through mild pain as Leander stepped ahead of us to kneel in front of her. His kin surrounded her in a semi-circle, facing us. Leander asked if Melisande was well, and received a kindly nod in return. He then half-turned to face us, still on one knee, Leander and his clan arrayed about their mistress.

If only they could give Melisande the kind of support she would need, and soon, such was my hope as I retrieved the little booklet from the satchel. I was horribly cold, but there was no help for it. I was tired, my feet were aching, and my mind was on the unpleasantries that lay ahead. Just as Sushulana would, I bypassed any attempt at preamble and went straight to what I must tell her.

  
“Last night, I showed this to Leonicus Chalcondyles and Ptolemy Dikaios. They both agreed with my assertion that this is the name of the third member of their Triumvirate.” I handed the booklet to Leander, open to that particular page. His eyes never left mine as he passed it to Melisande, unread. She took one look at the name and dropped the booklet to the floor, the breath leaving her lungs through clenched teeth. Her very presence seemed to fade as she turned her stricken eyes to Phedre. I think that for a moment, the two of them were only aware of each other, everyone else in the room becoming peripheral to them.

“ _This_ is what it feels like? _This_...?” Tears filled Melisande's eyes as the impact of betrayal, personal and earth-shaking, struck her for the first time in her life. Phedre was at her side in an instant, kneeling by the couch and comforting her as best she could. None of us begrudged her this, Sushulana's message had insured that Joscelin and Phedre knew the name, and I had been unsure of Melisande's innocence until I had seen her reaction, and what this had cost her.

Leander scooped up the booklet before Phedre's skirt could cover it, and this time he simply had to look. He paled as he handed it back to me, still open to the page that had just one word written on it;

**_Solon._ **

 

 

 

***

 

 

Leander needed a moment, a moment that we didn't have to spare for him. Sushulana slapped the flat of her purloined sword into her left palm, and he looked up away from the booklet.

“We have to go to him, now.” Imriel said quietly.

Leander blinked. “He would be... upstairs-

“Yes, we know, East wing, the room with the balcony. Show us the way.” Imriel's voice was still soft, yet the words came swiftly with an insistent edge to them. Leander rose and started moving as would a sleepwalker, arms dangling at his sides. He twitched as if he was about to look back at Melisande, but Sushulana nudged him gently. The news meant little to Leander himself, it was the harm it had done to Melisande that was his concern. Phedre stayed with Melisande, and Joscelin would not be leaving Phedre, and so it fell to us, four in number once again, to bring this to a close.

Solon did his best to meet us with a neutral expression on his face. He had spent the night here instead of the Fortress to preserve his distance from the Unseen Guild, and was loathe to give up his pretenses. Our own expressions, most notably Sushulana's, told him it was useless. “The others?” He asked, glancing to his right, towards the Fortress.

“All dead.” Sushulana told him coldly as she herded Leander to one side and kept her eyes on Solon, mostly, leaving space for Imriel and I to take center stage. She was saying what must be said so that we would not have to, in the hopes that Solon's ire would land on her shoulders, rather than ours. “Your brother and Chalcondyles threatened the systematic assassination of Houses Courcel and Montreve to force Merrin's cooperation. I took care of the two of them _myself_ , in case you were wondering.”

The room we had entered behind Leander was part study, part workshop. Broader than it was wide, there were shelves full of scrolls and books all along the walls behind us and to the sides. Two workbenches were strewn with various things, Solon himself was the only person there and sat in a desk directly opposite the door we had entered through, far from all the clutter. On his desk was only a bit of parchment he had been scribbling on, and a few glass globes. Behind Solon were open windows showing a fine view of the breaking dawn, a collection of Crystals and more glass baubles were arrayed on the window sills. The door to the balcony was behind Solon's chair, as if he had no fear of anyone approaching his back from that direction, and well he might. On this side of the Palace, the hillside fell away so steeply that it was nearly what one would call a cliff.

Rash we may have been, entering that way, had Sushulana not been with us. Before allowing Leander to open the doors, the _Alfar_ had woven a spell that she assured us would drain any active enchantments in that room. If Solon had woven any spells to greet us with, they were now harmless.

Solon grimaced. The light of a new day behind him made it difficult to read his face clearly, but he did appear to understand the magnitude of his defeat. “I presume you came away with some proof of what you have discovered, such as would satisfy the Government of your strongest ally?”

  
He was referring to the Akkadian throne. My answer was to tap Chalcondyles's satchel, still on my shoulder. He could no know what was inside it, yet he knew who's it was, and leaned back in his chair, collapsed more like, his second worst fear confirmed. As for his foremost fear; “Melisande?”

“She is as well as can be expected, and knows of your true place in all this.” I had meant to say those words more strongly than they came out.

“You will be there for her, I trust?” His eyes were hooded, making it difficult to tell if he was speaking to me, Imriel, or both of us. Solon nodded to Sushulana. “It will be a dreadful day of revelations and reflection for my wife... yet it will be even worse for _that_ one, I think.”

I hissed at him, Imriel took one threatening step forward, while Sushulana shot us a look of chilled bewilderment. Solon's enjoyment of our discomfort lasted but the blink of his weary eyes. Abruptly, he leaned forward and slapped the palms of his hands to the ebony desktop. “ _How_?  How did you discover my position... was it that damnable Dragon?”

Imriel smiled and inclined his head towards me.

“You?” Solon swallowed hard. “Quite the performance, your show of weakness yesterday before-”

“Weakness? _Humanity_! The fact that with all your wisdom, you can't see the difference … oh what a pity it is that pity itself would be wasted on you!”

“I would not accept it, if-”

“I would.” Sushulana cut him off. “I may yet, depending on what this day has to offer.” She ran her lips over her teeth, eyes on me as I avoided her gaze. “But, yeah, I'm curious too. Keep your hands where they are, old man, I'd like to hear about this. Seems like I missed a few things last night. Princess, the floor is yours.”

The sounds of armed men approaching the Palace reached out ears as I explained how we had arrived at the truth. I should have wondered why Solon would be playing for time, time that should, by rights, have favored us more than it did him. Those were D'Angeline men approaching, marines and hastily armed sailors from Twilight Rhapsody. Terre D'Ange was in the process of occupying Paphos.

I allowed myself this moment; “Many things revealed your true place in all this. In your haste, you relied far too much on our distracted state. You attempted to interrupt Merrin's revelation of the alliance between Carthage and the Tatar. I'm afraid I am past caring weather you were behind it or were hoping to reap the rewards of thwarting it in the nick of time, so save your breath. You stayed behind at the Fortress rather than oversee the retrieval of the Gold you had seemed so avid to gain. You had something else to oversee, the preparation of some silver manacles and collars, yes?”

Sushulana tapped the collar she still wore, and asked; “The key?”

Solon nodded at the workbench off to the right. Leander obligingly made to fetch it, and was halted by Sushulana's hand hooking his belt. “No need, not just yet.”

Solon slumped, and I nodded with a thin smile on my lips. “Yes, ineffective, but your torturers silenced her until we found her.” I swallowed hard to keep my gorge down, recalling _how_ we had found her gagged. “As to how she came to be at your mercy, that was the final clue. Merrin mentioned that he would not have wanted to contact us until Sushulana was asleep. Yet, wasn't the timing a little off? She could not have made it to her room by then, let alone come under the influence of some incense... I doubt that this incense even exists now. No, you had drugged her already, something in the water she drank at your table. Even before Merrin's surprises for us, your schemes were in motion, with your confederates arriving just in time to allow you to step back into the shadows. The delays yesterday, you arranged those to gain precious hours, hours your people put to good use. I don't even care how you deceived Melisande all these years. These methods of seeing into people... you probably helped write them down, what you _didn't_ write down was how to get around them.”

“Very well then,” Solon drew himself upright. The Sun began to crest the hill behind him. “Suppose that-”

“Save your suppositions, its over.” It was Imriel that interrupted him this time. “You, all of you people, had the chance to do something helpful, meaningful even. Instead, your Guild gathered like vultures to make the most of an opportunity for yourselves. The worst part is, you didn't even have to communicate with each other, they all gathered here as a matter of policy, and of shared desires! You greedy bastards couldn't pass up the opportunity to get your hooks into a source of power, be it a Tatar horde or some mysterious Fey woman that comes to us ready to bend her knee to save...” Imriel stopped himself before he could say too much. I was afraid Solon would do it for him.

My fear was wrong, Solon was too concerned about himself to think of taunting Sushulana again. “So, what now? Will you drag me in chains before the court of my liege, have a trial full of dramatic pronouncements, and more pain.... not only for me, but for your mother? So many secrets being revealed that all concerned would rather bury.”

“If you imagine anything can spare you-” Imriel blinked and hissed, and wrapped himself around me in a protective hug as we were blinded by a flash of light.

The crystals and glass had not been arranged randomly. They caught and held the Sun's rays, and focused them at eye-level, dazzling us for just a heartbeat. At the same time, Solon tipped a glass sphere off his desk so that it would shatter explosively one the stone floor. There was no acid, only the tinkle of sharp shards everywhere around our bare feet.

Sushulana was already moving. I heard the whoosh of a thrown sword, a toppling chair, and I dimly saw her leap atop Solon's desk. She cursed and left the room through the door to the balcony with another jump, Leander following behind. We could not be sure of his intentions, Imriel and I rose from our crouch , blinking into the light and dreading the damage a dash across the floor would do to our feet. We need not have worried. It was already too late for any of us to alter Solon's fate.

Leander had paused at the doorway, leaning on the doorjamb heavily. Sushulana was outside approaching the railing of the balcony, and then looking straight down. She turned back to us, head low with a tense frown on her face that showed her teeth, and shook her head slowly.

Happiness, he had once told Imriel, was the true purpose of life. With no possibility of it in the years remaining to him, Ptolemy Solon had left the unhappiness awaiting him this world, in the only manner remaining to him.


	5. 44

 

 

 

 

44

  
  
  
Merrin refused to leave the docks until bid by me to do so.  
That was the first news that the Marines from Twilight Rhapsody told to us. The next thing they told us was that Ti-Philippe had fallen.  
  
There was little more to it that their clipped, military manner imparted to us. Forewarned by Sushulana's message, Ti-Philippe had reacted to Hugues's attempt to play on his feelings with an all-out attack. He had killed Hugues, and had been cut down by Voz in return, one of four men to fall to the formidable Mnekhetan before he was overwhelmed and cut to pieces.  
  
Our men, D'Angeline or not, had little more to say on the matter, leaving our imaginations to conjure grim details. Had Hugues died blithely, with a lying smile still on his face? Had Ti-Phillipe hesitated after that, staring down at the ruin of his love and his dreams long enough for Voz to take his head with ease? Had there been something between Voz and Hugues? Nothing our Soldiers or Marines said gave us any clue, and the tiny Montreve clan was left to grieve under a shadow of uncertainty on the morning that Phedre lost the last of her Chevaliers.  
  
Mercy was in sort supply that day, there was little time to mourn before other concerns pulled us from each others arms. Melisande, devastated anew by Solon's suicide, withdrew to her private chambers and would tolerate no other company but Phedre. Joscelin set about securing the Palace and ensure its continued functioning under new management. However temporary, his task was more complicated than it would seem at first glance. Imriel, with the help of Leander, had to calm the population of Paphos, and explain the situation in a way that ordinary people could understand. At the same time, he had to stay in touch with Captain Etrigan as his men occupied the Fortress and made a through search of the entire building.  
  
As for me, there was Sushulana, who's eyes had rarely left me since she had seen the last of Solon.  
  
Merrin could spend the rest of the life at the docks, if that was his wont. He had not gained himself a reputation as a miracle worker that day, two out of the three men he had attempted to save had died. No Chirudgeon could have done any better, when men simply bleed too greatly or the fluids of a stomach wound had begun to mix poisonously, his flesh-knitting skills went for naught. Once he had announced his oath to me, our men tolerated his presence, once again they had little more to say on the matter.  
  
Sushulana... she was as patient as I could have wanted. After Solon's fatal leap she has used a spell to sweep the floor clear of debris, and gone to fetch the key. The way she hurled the cuffs and collar away was her first admission of how dearly she hated having to endure them for so long. She had shadowed me until everyone else in the Palace had been set to various tasks, including the quartet of Royal Guards that attached themselves to me. These I set to securing one of the guest chambers, and then standing guard outside it.  
  
Barely an hour had passed since sunrise.  
  
The suite was adequate to my purposes, as it included toiletry and bathing chambers. Sushulana unbuckled her weapons belt and tossed it aside carelessly. “Whatever this is, I have the feeling that your going to be hurt more by the telling of it than I will by the hearing of it.”  
  
I sat on a trunk at the foot of the bed. “There is little chance of that.” She stopped in front of me, and then made as if to kneel. I stopped her and pulled he into a sitting position next to me. “No matter what you may feel, can you promise me that you won't leave this room today?”  
  
Instead of making some flippant remark, she looked in my eyes and slowly nodded. As things developed, she did not leave that day, nor the next, nor the one after that. I explained what Merrin had done, and why, and had to repeat myself several times as she pretended not to understand what I was trying to tell her. Every ounce of my willpower was required to press on in the face of her tiny, voiceless “... please... don't...” and the way her body began to tremble and pull away from me.  
  
Sushulana had never given into the urge to grieve, not entirely. There had been moments of reflection in her life, or course, things or people seen in passing that would remind her of someone she had lost. The orphanage in Paphos itself had been one such thing, and she has always dealt with it the same way; shaking her feelings off as a dog would shake off water, and moving on to the next artificially manufactured crisis that Merrin had provided her. That was over for her now. Sushulana had to face her loss, and...  
  
… and I think that 72 years was just barely enough separation between her tragedy and that day. Even so, words fail to convey how she fractured before me eyes, and there were many times when I thought she was lost to us. The Guards came into the room several times that first day, to assure themselves that neither of us were being tortured to death. The echoes of her cries reached the distant room where Phedre was ministering to the similarly crushed Melisande. Imriel came to us that night, haggard and timid, and I left Sushulana in his care during a rare, quiet hour, to see to the others.  
  
It came as a badly needed and pleasant surprise to see Phedre and Melisande up and about, and comfortable in Joscelin's shared presence. The rumors, and the occasional sounds of what Sushulana was going through, had pushed Melisande through her own grief and beyond it. She had not regained her serenity as yet, I cannot say that she will ever regain it in full. She accepted my condolences and spared me any more explanations, Leander and Imriel had told her all that they had seen. All three of them were more concerned about me, and what was going on in that room.  
  
“You must rest now. You slept not at all last night, and you can't let her drain you any more tonight dear, you look a fright.” Melisande saying that, of all people, touched me, and it was the truth.  
  
“There is a bed in that room, I will be there until this is done.” I can't be sure what I sounded like to them, but it was sufficient to end any further argument on that matter. “What of Merrin?”  
  
“Did you not see?” Joscelin stepped quietly to the door and opened it just enough to peer down the hall. Merrin sat on a small stool with his head down, not far from the Guest chamber. Yes, I must have been exhausted and insensible, I had walked right past without even noticing him.  
  
“Oh _no_ , you have to get him away from here!”  
  
Joscelin shook his head. “Highness, I am afraid that only you can tell him what to do.”  
  
He was right, and I marched right out to do so. I snapped my fingers in front of his dazed face, a gesture that may have made him think that Sushulana was standing in front of him for an instant. He blinked up at me, and then his shoulders slumped. “Oh, _you_. How is she?”  
  
“Not terribly well, but we will not be losing her.” My confidence was based on faith alone, but he nodded as I went on. “Perhaps it was her brush with death last night, or what you did for her, but she will not simply curl up and die. However, I need you to leave here.... _shut your mouth_!” I was not abusing the hold I had over him, but I was determined to prevent him from rising and bursting into that room. His posture made me fear he was about to do just that. “You must stay away from her until I... _we_ , send for you. Please! Go to the villa, see to Anna and her people, they are the last of the Guild people left alive on this island besides Leander's and Melisande, yes?” He nodded, he had been looking. “Ah, yes, I thought as much. Go, make sure they are in the right frame of mind. Melisande can help with that. Go... somewhere, be a Dragon for a while if that helps you. She will want to see you, eventually. Were I you, I would not want to rush that moment. I'd be dreading it, to tell the truth.”  
  
Only much later did I recall that conversation, and how facing him down like that would have seemed so outrageous under any other circumstances.  
I made it back to that room in time to fall into bed beside Sushulana, passive at last, and slept while Imriel maintained a restless vigil over us.

  
  
* * * *

  
  
During those days, the heat of Summer broke at last, as it had been doing all over distant Europe. Fog drifted in and out of our nights, rains came fitfully and some species of plants began to wilt.  
  
If one must grieve, Autumn is the best time of year to do so, the world itself seems to be in sympathy with you.  
  
The next day was much quieter, depressingly so. Between brief jags of sobbing a gnashing of teeth Sushulana was practically catatonic. She was so passive that even with Imriel's help, it was difficult to dress her. When a brave servant came to bathe her, she was kicked away, and that task fell to us as well. Bitter indeed was the news from the Fortress; many rings had been found there, not a single one of them was her missing Pearl ring. Sushulana drank water, spat wine out and refused any food.  
On the third day I found her pacing around in the predawn darkness.  
  
I rose from the bed with a toga-styled shift thrown over my shoulder. “Please come back to us.” I had said many such things, those 5 words had passed my lips for the hundredth time perhaps, and she responded more often than not. Sometimes it was if she was hearing them for the first time. This time, there was nothing. She simply stood in the middle of the room twiddling her fingers rapidly and staring vacantly at the floor. How do I get through to her, I wondered, and aloud; “When did I first get through to you?”  
  
“That first day... when you smiled.” She answered absently, not looking at me. “Why did you _want_ to? Seemed more like you'd despise me, I was ready for that, but instead...”  
  
I stepped up to her and stroked her matted hair gently. “You fought so well, you can stand up to any man in the world. I didn't think that was possible.”  
  
“Oh, dear, no more of that, please. Any stupid animal can learn to kill.” So thoughtlessly did she discount her own hard-won skills. She had indeed changed, it was a very long time before I saw her even approach a violent situation again. Phaing was gone, but what would she do without her spunk and vitality now that it was needed most? Especially now that Sushulana's self-loathing loomed larger than ever.  
  
She drifted in and out of lucid conversations all morning. It was progress, of a sort. She allowed us to bathe her again, and a light massage at midday put her to sleep briefly. When she awoke she went straight for that belt of her's, and I felt a flash of gratitude that the sword and dagger had not been replaced yet. She ignored the scabbards and went for a small pouch, one that required a spell to open, and removed a square of metal smaller than the palm of her hand. She held it tightly over her heart, not moving until I made a small noise and she noticed my presence again.  
  
Sushulana scurried to my side on the bed, eyes brightly moist and with a tremulous smile on her face. She unfolded what she had, eight steel plates hinged at the sides so that they could be laid out end to end. On each side of the plate was a tiny, exquisitely detailed detailed portrait on the front and back. Men, women, boys, girls... her family. She named them for me; “Pyrre, Tommaz, Vinzon, Rhia,” and so on. Some names came with accents I could never hope to duplicate, some come easily to my tongue even now. She spent the rest of the afternoon telling me about them, a catharsis of sorts, but her tears kept coming and going. The only progress I was certain of was that we had made was getting her to eat a little something, by sunset she was a little smoother, more balanced. Imriel came and went several times that day. Once Sushulana raised her head and gave him a weak smile, and he paused to regal us with the comedy of errors taking place outside as the men searched high and low for a Cytherian, any Cytherian, brave and reliable enough to fill the Governor's shoes until a replacement could be found on the mainland. Sushulana nodded and pretended to be interested for two minutes, and then looked down again at her family album. She did not look up again until well after Imriel had left. The Alfar did not notice me getting up with him, nor our conversation at the door.  
  
An hour later it was full dark outside and she was still telling me about her children, while I found myself staring at the portrait of one of her husbands, the one with round ears. Phedre and Melisande strolled right into the room, without knocking or preamble of any kind. The came arm in arm, dressed in black, faces matching in stern composure.  
  
“Well, here you are, the both of you. How unsurprising.” I had helped plan this, yet Phedre's tone made me grind me teeth. I had never heard her sound so cold.  
  
Sushulana and I were seated on the trunk, where we had started three days earlier. Phedre stepped right up to me, close enough to prevent me from rising. On her left, Melisande approached Sushulana, not crowding her quiet so much as she towered over the _Alfar._ “Hello, old woman.” She spoke in a tone that was angled just as steeply downward as her head had to be to speak to Sushulana. “My husband's funeral was this afternoon. You missed it.”  
  
Phedre held up her hand to me, bidding that I hold my peace. This was rather more than I had asked for, and it was only just beginning.  
  
Sushulana looked up at Melisande, blinking stupidly up at her, but at least that statement penetrated her mind. “Sorry.” She said, the lilt at the end of the word hinting that her apology might be heart-felt. That was all she said as she lifted the little album from her lap and held it out to Melisande. A peace offering, an invitation to go on a little guided tour of her past such as I had been treated to, and now could find no tactful escape from.  
  
In no way was it being used as a shield, it certainly _not_ Sushulana's way of saying ' _here is my lose, what could your own be compared to that_?' … however, it was useful to Melisande to take that interpretation of it. She plucked it from Sushulana's hands and flipped through it, closing the panels one by one.”Charming, yet so many children here. No hint that they had grown and had children of their own. _lives_ of their own. Shown here as if they were still your babies, tsk!” The Alfar's eyes sharpened as Melisande continued; “I doubt they would approve of anyone using them to hide inside.” And without further warning, she stepped back and threw the little album out the nearest window.  
  
“ _NOOOOO_!” The three of us were just barely quick enough, and strong enough, to bear the shrieking woman down to the floor before she could make a demented leap for the window. “WHY would you _DOOO_ tha-ha-hatt?!”  
  
What a graceless tumble we made for, what we must have sounded like to those waiting outside. On reflection, it could have appeared humorous and scandalous, at the time it was anything but that. Both of the older women were tying to tell Sushulana things, important things that went for naught. For my part, I was trying me best to slow her down, I was afraid she would go diving out that window head-first. The silk shift I had coaxed her into did not give way, or she might have shed it as a snake would its skin to get free of us. Silk is slippery, however, and she did manage to get free. Squirming across the floor, she reached the wall and climbed up to the sill. I relaxed now, we had robbed her of her momentum and Sushulana was able to see what was waiting outside that window before she could go launching herself out into the darkness. our greatest fear had been that she would leap before looking.  
  
Her first surprise was that it wasn't so dark out there after all.  
  
Every child from the Orphanage she had visited was standing out there, looking up at the window Sushulana stood in. Many of them held candles, dozens of them, and all were wearing new clothes. Every one of those little faces were turned up to her, they had heard the commotion and her wails and even the ones that smiled looked worried for her. I know, because I could not hold myself back. I stepped up to her side while Phedre and Melisande were helping each other up off the floor and straightening out their clothes.  
  
“What did you tell them?” Sushulana asked me.  
  
“The truth.”  
  
“Ahh... of course.” Her fist attempt to smile at them was ghastly. I stepped in and wiped her face with a napkin from another neglected meal.  
  
“They have been waiting for you for some time now.” My voice was the barest whisper, the orphans below were still silent.  
  
“But... the clothes?” The coin she had given them had been spent on food, that was what orphanages thought of first.  
  
“Its nothing short of miraculous, what a handful of Gold dust will get you in the clothiers market these days.” Melisande commented, sitting primly on the chest we had just left. “No, save your words. Face this! There are people who love you and need you right here. Come back to them, and justify whatever it is that makes them love you so.”  
  
Sushulana hung her head, and in so doing she saw something that made her gasp, and lean out the window.  
  
The room was on the 1st floor, even so the ground outside was a good eight feet below the sill. Some of the children had rushed forward and formed a human pyramid, all hushed whispers and earnest faces glancing up at us as they worked together to bring Sushulana something back to her. The one at the top, a girl of 6 or 7, straightening up at the top of the pyramid and leaned into the wall, holding herself upright with one hand and reaching up with the other.... holding up Sushulana's album to her.  
  
“You are right... enough is truly enough.” Sushulana whispered to me as my eyes went wide, hand covering my mouth while I beheld the pyramid. The living pyramid was too precarious and they would never reach the window unless she could meet them halfway, which she promptly did. Sushulana slipped over the windowsill, hanging by one hand and one foot hooked over the marble shelf. She accepted the album from the gaping child and then looked back up at me. “Unhand me Princess.” I had clapped my hands to her arm, and I shook my head, no, I was not going to let her go tumbling down... “Catch!” she said with a grin and tossed the precious little album up at me from behind her back. I yelped and caught it by reflex, while she said to the orphans. “Watch how I do this.”  
  
She pushed off from the wall, legs bent, and landed on the ground with a roll that brought her back up to her feet. More disheveled than ever, she held her arms out to the little girl, who naturally jumped into Sushulana's embrace quite gracelessly. The _Alfar_ ended up flat on her back in the dirt, child protected in her arms, and laughing together.  
  
Sushulana was the sort that would not panic in the face of children doing dangerous things. She would join in with them, and show them by doing so what the risks really were. The orphans surged around her. “We're so sorry.” they said, over and over. She hugged and kissed them, greeting most of them by name and on her knees for much of it.

I turned away, sitting on the sill, finding Phedre and Melisande facing the scene. “That was not what I asked the two of you for.”  
  
Melisande favored me with a devilish grin, eyes flickering between me and the scene below. “Effective non the less, wouldn't you say? And not a moment too soon.... nor too late.”  
  
“Three days is a traditional period of mourning.” Phedre added sagely, taking the album from my slack fingers. She thumbed through it, shook her head and passed it to Melisande. “I don't believe its over for her, there will be ... episodes to come. _Your_ part, dear Princess, can end now.”  
  
Melisande nodded, and held the back of her hand to my forehead, as one would check for a fever. “Worry not about the events that have taken place outside this room, everything has been seen to by people who would rather have dealt with anything _at all_ that could take them away from what you have been struggling with here. Now, daughter, its high time you allowed those who love you to take care of your needs.”  
  
_Daughter_ , she had been saving that word for a serious occasion, and it told on me. I felt as if I were a candle burned to a stump, and rather than argue I simply asked, “Imriel?”  
  
“Holding her horse, at the door. This scene did not unfold precisely the way we ourselves had planned, did it Phedre?”  
  
“Do they ever?” The pair of them linked arms with me and walked me to the door where Imriel and Leander waited. Not for me, they were watching Sushulana approach with the children in tow. I watched from inside as she reacquainted herself with a horse she called “Egoist” that I never would have approached on my own. It was a hammer-headed brute that was so stout and muscular I had to look twice to confirm that it was a Mare. It's mottled hide was just coming into its winter coat, giving it a shaggy and wild look. Sushulana cooed and petted her horse. When Leander gave her some carrots to offer the beast, she passed them to the children, and had them feed Egoist. It was not a reunion, she was passing ownership on to the Orphanage.  
  
“No more long damp days in ships for you, sweetie.” She crooned and encouraged all the children to come up and touch the horse or feed it. “Alright gang, this is _your_ horse now, you have to take care of her, I will be back in the Spring, when she Foals.” There was no argument from the staff, leasing out the horse would more than pay for its keep, the children were not so sure;

  
“But we lost your belt and Bow!”  
  
“No you didn't, I went sneaking back one night and took them back. Sorry, I didn't have time to leave a note. Now, this isn't a toy, you have to take good care of this horse every day, no slacking, agreed?” Every one of them pledged allegiance to “Sushilina's” horse, and if even on in ten of them kept the promise, that horse would be the most pampered animal on the island.  
  
Anna Marzoni and her man, Kynan, stepped up to take the reigns. “Ahhhh... found a new purpose in life?” Anna nodded, and said nothing. I would have to wait before I would have a chance to speak to her myself.  
  
Kynan answered for her; “We had a conversation with your Merrin. He mentioned that this might please you.”  
  
“Merrin....” The mere mention of that name brought her back down to earth more firmly than anything else could have. “Well, he's right. I was not kidding about returning in the Spring. You'll be seeing how pleased I am with your choices then.”  
  
She watched them go, helping to shoo some of the more reluctant ones and telling them she would be coming by the next day to say goodbye for the winter. Imriel met her on the steps as he was heading inside. “Making plans already?”  
  
Another woman would have said something awful, or wandered off into the night. Sushulana simply nodded towards the door. “Please take care of Sidonie, and tell her thanks for me. Was it really three days?” Imriel nodded, and the both of them sighed at the same time in roughly the same way. “Go on, I'll be fine. Don't look for me tonight, I'll probably be at the Villa, having a little time alone to-”  
  
She caught site of me then, halfway behind the door jamb and just awake enough to remain standing. The look that passed between us revived me, I found myself standing tall and centered in the doorway, and both of us paused for a little slice of eternity. What passed between us was a silent sharing of too many things for words. There was a mutual gratitude, her assurance that she was going to continue to be alive and well.... and somewhere along the way, an _Alfar_ twenty times my years had accepted me as an equal, and so much more than just that. Sushulana would continue to exist, to honor me. For her sake I'd rather wanted it to be more than that, but a purpose for her life would have to wait for another day.  
  
Sushulana's eyes dropped to the album in my hand. Her lips twitched in the rough approximation of a smile as she shook her head, indicating that she didn't want it back. Not yet. She turned away from us, head back and eyes closed as she drew in a lungful of the ocean breeze.  
  
And just like that, the moment was over, our labors were done.  
  
  
      
  
I was so drained that I was afraid I might not be able to sleep. I don't recall anything that was said as Imriel took charge of me and we parted from Phedre and Melisande, perhaps nothing at all was said. It is just as difficult to say how I came to be in an opulent room that I had never seen before, laid out in a fresh bed and Imriel's matchless presence beside me.  
  
I would surrender anything he wanted of me, as ever, but I had to ask him something first; “Darling, have you looked at the names yet?”  
  
Imriel nodded. I was talking about the lists penned by the members of the Unseen Guild, that satchel had not left his side since he had picked it up in Sushulana's room 2 days before. “Fear not, love. Some of the names were surprising, but not ruinous. Not to our family nor the Kingdom itself. Rest-”  
  
I fell into the arms of Morpheus before he could finish his sentence.


	6. 45

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

45

 

 

We slept through the night and half of the next day, waking in a mild panic and rushing downstairs lest any more great things happen on Cytheria without our involvement. I had been going without shoes for so long that I nearly left Imriel behind, and held a finger up to my lips to keep him quiet as the murmur of voices reached me. A heated discussion was taking place in the parlor.

It is a fact of life that the Nobles of the world tend to eavesdrop on those around us, especially our staff and servants. Questionable behavior, perhaps, and necessary as often as not. Sushulana would eat as her crew did to know how they felt, we listened to our people to know how they felt, and this was often best accomplished when they were speaking freely. People speak most freely when their monarchs are not among them, with the exception of Sushulana… what a valuable Companion she would make. Imriel and I paused just around the corner of the doorway by reflex to listen in for a moment.

“... and you mean that Merrin said all those disgusting things at the Fortress, essentially, because he had run out of _material_?” Melisande's voice, sounding much as it had the day before. “A fascinating admission, how did you pry that from him.”

“By cornering him, with Joscelin's help, and demanding an explanation of his use of the term 'martyr complex'. Contrition is a glorious thing to see coming from one such as he. It may even be a lasting thing... ’tis difficult to tell.” Phedre's voice, fresher, yet also weighty with concerns. “Sushulana walked in not long after he had explained how difficult it had been, fooling her for all those years....” Phedre paused, and continued at some silent prompt from someone in the room. “I had assumed that when she told us half a century had passed playing his game, that she was exaggerating, that surely less time had passed as is normally the case in traumatic times. The fact that _more_ time had actually passed tells me that Merrin knew what he was doing. He kept her engaged and fulfilled, if that is not too radical a word to use. As questionable as his plan was, his execution of it was flawless.”

“For as long as he was able to endure it. Had he not come here with her, Merrin could have succumbed to true madness, I believe.” This was from Joscelin.

  
“Yes, and sooner than later. Wait, Sushulana did meet with Merrin this morning? What transpired?” Melisande asked Phedre.

The Comtess had to clear her throat, I think that with the worst of everything past us, Melisande's spell on her was beginning to reassert itself. “Ah, well, Merrin was standing, leaning on the wall, and she walked in through the doorway behind him. Sushulana might have walked through the room without seeing him. He spoke to her, just her name. Her steps never missed a beat; he circled around and kicked him squarely between the legs.”

“It was not a weak hit, either.” Joscelin added. “For just an instant, I think I saw daylight under the heels of his boots. She said nothing to him, she breezed right on past us, commenting on how much better she felt now.”

“I would have thought that such a thing was taboo to an intensely trained pleasure-slave.” Melsande commented. “ _Do unto others_ , and so on.”

“Merrin must have thought so as well, he made no move to shield himself, or perhaps he accepted it as his due... but it would appear that Sushulana herself must have moved beyond her childhood traumas, as she herself did tell us. Hopefully, thanks to Sidonie and the both of you, she is moving past the worse things as well.” Joscelin did indeed sound hopeful, if guardedly so.

Phedre did not. “I managed to speak to Sushulana in the baths this morning, after she had returned from going on a rampage through every tavern in town-”

  
“I heard she found Jharroque and his men, and took two to her room.”

“ _Three_ Melisande, at the same time. As binges go, one can only hope that it was relatively harmless No fighting nor excessive drinking was involved. Now I was trying to say, what?... ah, no, she was calm and relaxed when I saw her, so it may have done her good.” This was the annoying part about eavesdropping; we could not see the non-verbal interplay going on. “Too calm, detached even. She lay there and rattled off some statistics for me, saying she had done the math in her head. In 533 years of living, she has had approximately 1800 lovers, a third of them female, and she used the term lover loosely.” We heard the ruffle of paper, and stared at each other bemusedly. Phedre had written that down? Of course, of course she had. “She has slept one and a half million hours, consumed nearly half a million meals and 'given it all back' 200,000 times or so. She has imbibed 2,000 gallons of wine, 600 gallons of distilled spirits, eaten a dozen tons of bread ... and lost 4 Husbands.” Phedre let the paper fall with a sigh. “She sounded so weary, of life, all its routines. She rounded on me after telling me all that and demanded that I tell her what I had been holding back. I had to let it out, she holds nothing back herself.”

“You didn't!”

“I had to, Joscelin! Would that I could have avoided it, but I did tell her that the feeling, the insight I received from the Gods... about this being the last world either of them will ever see. Sushulana was not upset! She relaxed further, I swear she was smiling when I left her.” Phedre spoke louder now; “Oh _do come in_! How long have you been skulking about?”

Imriel and I entered the room, doing our best to appear serene. I saw relief in their faces, perhaps worried that it was someone else listening in. We closed the door and exchanged the welcomes.

“Of _course_ Sushulana was smiling.” I began, and paused to savor their surprise. “Don't be so swift to see something dark in the thoughts of the _Dohk Alfar_. The best of all possible worlds, didn't she say so? Trust her to know what she is talking about in that regard. Now, that was quite the list, and I see your point, Comtess. Yes, quite the list.” I settled into a chair that was large and comfortable, Imriel at my side resting one arm across my shoulders. It was good to be comfortable and to feel like a Princess, once again. “As I see it, the difficulty with Sushulana is to give her something to live for, a purpose that will take her mind off the drudgery of maintaining herself. Please, be at ease, this very thing occurred to me last night, and I have had a very long  & restful sleep on the matter. You have my thanks for allowing us to do so uninterrupted.” I smiled to them all and raised one hand to take Imriel's hand in my grasp. All but Imriel gave me quizzical, hopeful looks. I continued; “And moreover, we have a Dragon to manage.”

The mention of Merrin set everyone's face to grim scowls, all save my own, and Imriel.

“You have a solution.” Melisande stated, not asking. “Merrin's oath to you was given in extreme situation. You want Merrin as an adviser and you would put Sushulana in charge of the Collegeum you are planning to build, do you really think their debts to us ...” her voice trailed off. Our smiles remained as we shook our heads. “More than I realized must have passed between you and the Alfar last night, and now with Imriel.”

We had indeed spoken as we had thrown on our clothes, briefly. There was little that need be said, between the two of us.

“His oath is merely the battering ram that opens the fortress for us, so to say. A pair of fortress-like hearts that we mean to open... to each other.”

Phedre clamped her hand over the bridge of her nose and struggled to hold back a shout of disbelieving laughter. Joscelin let out one choked exclamation about one of our God's bodily parts, and stood slowly as he stared at us. Melisande held her composure, shaking her head at our youthful foolishness. “I can't see it happening. If it could have, it would have already. 72 years, dear ones. _Can_ a Dragon even love at all? The Legends suggest otherwise. As for Sushulana, Merrin is a living legend for her and she is still trying to come to terms with him. Surely you have seen that. Forgive me for overstating the obvious, but in this case the obvious and oh-so-D'Angeline solution is naught but fantasy.”

Hard words, spoken earnestly. Melisande was expecting an emotional reply from us, something very negative. When our smiles only deepened, she glanced at Phedre, and received only a shrug in return. Her eyes wandered to Joscelin, but he did not appear to feel her gaze. The Casselin stood with arms folded, looking down on us with a tight smile. “Enlighten us, if you please?”

We did so, smiles fading as we recounted the events in the fortress. Up to that point, our elders had only heard very brief versions from Imriel, the bare bones that we now put flesh on. Specifically, the events in the meeting room, which impressed them greatly and put Merrin in a somewhat different light, and most importantly the scene at the bottom of that staircase.

Phedre had been leaning forward with hands on her knees, and with a long shuddering sigh she fell back into the cushions as I finished describing Sushulana's revival. “So close! Gods... and still with us.” She stared up at the ceiling, and beyond. Joscelin had been pacing while we spoke, and now he paused at her side. They looked into each other's eyes, recalling those times when they had thought each other dead. Melisande seemed less skeptical as I continued;

“Merrin was beside himself, if she had died he would have found a way to do away with himself, he said so right there. As for Sushulana, she was so serene when she thought she was going to die. If you could have seen the way she was looking up at him, you would know what we know.”

Imriel continued for me. “You would know that they love each other already, deeply, and have for some time. Now that Sushulana has put her past behind her, I think that making her see the truth of the situation won’t be difficult. Our challenge is Merrin. He has been living , breathing and dreaming her this whole time. He made millions of people hate him, over and over again to keep her going.... however, his will is formidable, to say the least. To confess this, on top of everything else, I don't know how we can get through to him, not precisely.”

I attempted to duplicate Phedre's feat, and catch an eavesdropper; “Well Merrin?” I called out to an invisible presence. “What say you?” Silence. “Come, show yourself.” There was no answer, the presence was a phantom in my own mind.

“We will have to repeat all this again?” Imriel sighed.

“Where _is_ he?” I asked the room at large, knowing I had missed much of the last few days activities.

“He has been making himself invaluable, I must admit.” Joscelin answered me while Imriel went to have a look out the window. “Merrin is not above rolling his sleeves up to aid in salvage efforts, where his strength is making him a legend anew. He also makes for a cunning negotiator, more so than simply being able to read thoughts could indicate. Our surprise occupation of Paphos has caused no serious issues with the locals, at any level. No resistance at all beyond that of a few pick-pockets, which is a miracle in itself.”

“What do these people think happened here?” I asked.

Joscelin chuckled and reclaimed his seat. “Well, it is said that the D'Angeline Navy has saved Paphos from an evil Dragon and rescued the Governor's wife and her clan from a fate worse than death. Unfortunately, the Governor and many of his garrison had already fallen resisting the great beast and his minions.” Melisande made a face that was similar to that a chief would make after baking a lovely cake, only to discover that she had used salt instead of sugar. “He has also used his talents to identify for us the person living in Paphos with the skills and integrity to fill the Governors shoes.”

Melisande perked up. “Ah, this is news we can make use of. Who is it?”

For the first time in his life, Joscelin looked straight at Melisande... and smiled.

 

            * * *

 

 

Over a luncheon that was just barely sumptuous enough to suppress my hunger, Melisande refused any but the most temporary stewardship of this island realm. Steps were already being taken in her Villa with evacuation in mind. She would stay until the first official messenger from Tyre was sighted, and not an hour longer. As a woman, she would never have the stature to win out in a disagreement with the Vizier of Tyre, and Cytheria had lost its charm for her.

Merrin could be difficult to locate , he had the habit of showing up where he was most needed, and then moving on. He'd not lingered in the palace after being kicked so rudely. This, perhaps, was not the best time that he be approached regarding romantic notions.

“And what room is Sushulana sleeping in?”

“Not one in this palace. She left for the orphanage right after I spoke to her.” Phedre spread her hands helplessly. “I can only hope that she is taking a mid-day nap with the toddlers now.”

      

Melisande returned to her Villa and Phedre & Joscelin remained at the Palace while Imriel and I paid a visit to the Orphanage. Our escort included Jharroque and half a dozen of our Royal Guard. The part of town where the Orphanage was located had a less than stellar reputation, as is so often the case. Imriel and I glanced at Jharroque several times, but he never gave anything away, nor did we ever find out if he had even been in Sushulana's room at all that night. The young Lieutenant was learning, perhaps someday we would reconsider having him appointed to our Guards.

The Orphanage was built facing inwards, a common thing all over the Southern Sea's coasts, turning dwellings into defensive structures. We sent no warning ahead as we desired to see how things were run here, and because of our playful desire to surprise Sushulana. In this we were successful; as we rounded the entrance corridor and passed into the central corridor we found Sushulana facing sideways to us with her jaw clenched and tapping one foot rapidly, her eyes fixed on Merrin himself just 4 paces away from her. She was wearing a plain white tunic missing its sleeves and a matching skirt that fell past her knees, Merrin made do with tan & black trousers and vest. Still in the shape of a man, he had his hands clasped behind his back as he explained something to her. What he was explaining became obvious as soon as she noticed out presence. She turned to us and took a step forward.

“You _can't_ be serious!”

And to think, it had felt so good to return to the privileges of being the Dauphine once again. This wasn't anything like being caught eavesdropping. This time, it was more akin to felling as a child would when caught sneaking out the back door with the cookie jar. “I asked you to show yourself!” I berated Merrin.

“You did. _This_ is something of a personal matter, don't you think?”

Sushulana crossed her arms under her breasts. “He's saving you some embarrassment. How could you think... I mean, Carthage was the first glimpse I caught of him in something like 20 years.” Merrin looked away at the mention of Carthage, and his eyes came to rest on the Guards standing behind us. Imriel turned and motioned for them to back off enough to allow for a private conversation. When he turned back he spoke directly to Merrin; “You admitted you love her, what are you doing?”

“I merely agreed with your assertion that anyone who made the effort to know Sushulana for what she truly is could not _help_ but to love her.” Saying it like that, Merrin practically eliminated our hopes. Yes, he could love, so far so good. Yes, he did love her, and freely admitted it... yet the way he did so made his feelings appear inconsequential, nothing worth more than a passing mention. What were we supposed to be able to do with _that_?

And worse, Sushulana did not bat an eyebrow. She had been expecting nothing more. “You weren't simply trying to distract me from giving this ol' Dragon a piece of my mind regarding 72 years of deception, were you? Because I had my whole day planned out.” She paused just long enough to enjoy the looks on our faces. “And over dinner I had such things to tell you, so much to take care of before we get you home. What will the weather by like in your city next week? We need the right clothes-”

“Next _week_?”

“Why yes.” She turned to Merrin with a sly grin. “Dragons are notoriously touchy about being used as beasts of burden, but considering the situation, it's not unreasonable for us to expect him to give us a ride there.... is it?”

Merrin swallowed. “No, not if it saves my ears another of those rants of yours. The sort that makes sailors blanch and paint peel from wood.” He smiled thinly at her, allowing her a moment to savor that, and turned to us. “We will need rope and thick furs, can't have too much of either. Even in summer, the speed I fly at is chilling to most folk such as yourselves.”

“We need glass too, if they are going to see anything.” Sushulana mused aloud. “We have to take off early, before the sun rises. We don't want to be seen by too many people flying away on a Dragon that you are supposed to have defeated.”

We were going to ride a Dagon! And best of all, we would be home before my Mother could become too worried about what had happened to us. And better yet, no long, dreary trek home for Phedre and Joscelin. I couldn't trust my voice, but fortunately Imriel was there.

“Justicar, Truthseeker...” he was bowing, but stopped himself when he saw them look at each other, and start laughing. Yes, laughing. Sushulana's helpless titter started Merrin off, head down and shoulders shaking, and when they looked at each other it became something heart-felt and rather loud.

“I'm sorry!” Sushulana tried to explain when she saw me standing there with my hand over my mouth. “We're not losing it or mocking you.”

“No, its something I said earlier.” Merrin cleared his throat roughly, laughter was a stranger to him in this, or any other form. “I'm afraid I was having you on before, in the carriage. Being taken prisoner is an unpleasant experience, and I'm afraid I was indulging in a little psychological warfare. Not that Sushulana here isn’t singularly devoted to the truth, nor to say that I don't cherish Justice... but I am afraid that we were calling each other something rather flippant atop that Keep.”

“Is that what it was? Flippant.... I'd hate to hear you have a more serious disagreement.” Imriel was also starting to have second thoughts about my match-making ideas.

Sushulana was shaking her head. “There was this game, it involved a deck of cards, dice, and pieces you would move about a stylized map. There were also a few game pieces that would move randomly about the board that you wanted to avoid. One is called the Justicar, and if it landed on you, your piece was sent to jail for a turn. The truthseeker was the one that made you lay your cards out on the table for all to see.”

“As I recall, the Truthseeker was a tiny figure of a young girl with her hair in braids, and a wide-open mouth.” Merrin said with a perfectly bland look on his face.

“And the Justicar was a blindfold draped over a Blackstone hammer.” Sushulana shifted her leg as if she meant to kick him, and Merrin pretended not to notice.

“Sounds... complicated.” I managed to say with a straight face.

We left them promising to meet for Dinner at the Palace, and to see about departing on the morrow. It was thrilling to see them share a laugh, and to know that they were standing much closer to each other when we left than when we had arrived.

 

   * * *

 

 

On the way out, we encountered Anna again. Belinda was there, and no sign of Kynan. Belinda looked as if she would rather be elsewhere, Imriel must have become something of a harbinger of doom for her, and the effort required of Anna to hold her ground appeared to be even greater than that required of Imriel to approach her. They both held their chins high, not defiantly or proudly, but they both had something important to say to us and meant to do so. As we stopped before them they both knelt, Belinda being brought down by a subtle twist of the wrist that Anna had learned somewhere along the way.

“Anna.... I.....”

“If you will permit me?” She was not so tongue-tied as Imriel was, so I nodded at her and motioned for her to rise. “Thank you. I have seen the care you have taken with the man you lost here, Philipe? Yes, the last Chevalier, my condolences. Tell me, Imriel, did you take the same care with Gillot? I never knew...”

Imriel swallowed hard and cleared his throat, “Gillot was embalmed as best we could manage, I accompanied his coffin back to the City of Elua, where he was laid to rest in our family plot. Anna, I'm sorry-”

“No Prince, don't be. I am the one who should be sorry... I never imagined, and when you offered money.... I was wrong about you. I apologize and beg you for what mercy you can spare for one such as I.” One such as her, she was separating her fate from that of her daughter, a brave move as I myself could not think of her as the young widow from Tiber, my mental image of her would always be that of the predatory agent of the Unseen Guild that threatened a helpless captive with those ghastly slivers.

Imriel shook his head. “I never blamed you for any of it. I should have thought....”

“You were 18!” I could not hold back. “Anna Marzoni, your man died doing his duty, and my husband has never forgiven himself for what happened. Can _you_ please forgive him?”

“Princess, that is exactly what I am trying to do.” She barely glanced at me, knowing what my impression of her was. The bruise on her forehead was healing, but still clearly visible.

Imriel took a deep breath and said quietly; “Then let us forgive each other, and remember. Sushulana has set a task for you, and if she says she will return, you know she will. Will you be comfortable with this? Will this be good for... for you, Belinda?”

“The Hellene they speak here is weird, but we do fine.” Belinda spoke up at him with a child's openness. “Some of these guys think they know how to be sneaky, they need a good lesson in what they _don't_ know.”

We did not roll our eyes, but the promise of mayhem to come did make us smile. Anna released her daughter to go back to the other children, many of whom were her own age, and what more precious company can any child know?

“You have secrets to keep, Anna, keeping them is all the forgiveness I can ask.”

“Yes… yes Prince, and D'Angeline mercy is well know. It is also all that stands between Merrin’s vengeance and my loved ones.” She looked at him one last time. “Merrin was right about us, what he said about our motivations. Were it not for Belinda, you'd have no reason...” She swallowed hard, and looked to me. “... the names I gave you are not all evil people, but they all have goals of their own. They are not _your_ own. Please keep that in mind.”

We went to the docks next, I had to at least touch Ti-Phillepe's coffin. It was such a miserable thing, to know so little of how he had fallen in our service. Surrounded by comrades, he had died barely noticed among them as they all fought for their own lives. Another monument to the horrible nature of war, how some of the greatest heroes simply vanished into the maelstrom of violence, only noticed later in their absence. The waste, the foolishness of it all, I meant to discuss this with Sushulana and see how this fit in with her philosophy .... I had the errie feeling that she would have a ready answer that I perhaps would regret hearing. Or, perhaps not. There would be time for such things, such as the day we laid this man to rest at last.

The last of Phedre's boys, how that must weigh on her mind, and how she must struggle to hold her grief at bay while helping Melisande deal with her own, and at the same time sparing attention to Sushulana and the other doings here in Paphos. She deserved better, and to have to wait until the long voyage home brought Phillipe's remains home for burial...

No, I thought, _no_ , why wait?

Imriel was pleasantly surprised to see me smile while I still had my hand on Ti-Phillepe's coffin, and became more so when I told him my idea.


	7. 46

 

 

 

 

 

**46**

  
  
  
  
  
“I am not a beast of burden! To carry the five of you is one thing, but hauling a dead man around is out of the question!”  
  
Sushulana and I had not had any opportunity to speak to Merrin before dinner, and so we sprang my proposal on him over the main course. In a moment of high humor, Melisande had arranged for that course to be braised Swan. In a voice entirely lacking such humor, she said to Merrin; “That man is dead because of your presence here, as is my husband. _No_ , I am not saying that I would have preferred to live on in ignorance, Dragon, so save your words. It is a far better thing to have been caught up in his endgame and survived that coming to some other end.” She leaned forward and stared at him over a glass of rose-red wine. “Consider this service you will preform for Phedre as the kindly deed that earns you an audience before her dear friend, the Queen.”  
  
Merrin scowled and considered that. “For Sushulana as well?”  
  
The _Alfar_ had been watching the Dragon’s discomfort with a merry look in her eye, but at that she dropped her fork to the plate with a clatter. “Oh no no no no, no, no! Me, in _that_ court? It would be a disaster, that woman is so uptight she could back into the wall and pull out a brick!”  
  
Dead silence greeted Sushulana’s crude gambit to escape from a Royal interview, and I felt the blood rush to my face. Thankfully, I alone noticed that Imriel was suppressing a grin and a chuckle, one that only he was entitled to. That horrible thing that my mother had said to him when he returned bereaved and broken from Alba, yes, that helped put me in a more reasonable frame of mind. Merrin’s fury was another.  
  
“ _Sushulana Evelerian vin Treewater_!” he snapped at her, “When are you going to cease being such a foul-mouthed trull?”  
  
She put her fist on the table and rounded on him. “Do you think I l _ike_ being this way? When do you think I last had a chance to be… aw _fuck_ this thing” She worked at one of her rings, the one that translated languages for her. She tugged at it, and succeed in removing it where the Unseen had failed, using a spell that changed the shape of her finger, and perhaps the ring as well. She let it drop to the table and spoke to Phedre and myself. Her accent was the same, yet she was taking special care with her wording, which made it all the stranger to hear how she used those them; “Knowing your words, I do, you teaching me D’Angeline as she is goodly spoken, please yes?”  
  
Phedre’s fury at Sushulana had been mollified by learning her full true name, at last. Finding that her more disagreeable speech patterns were a result of a crude enchantment put a tiny smile on her face. She picked up the ring and examined it briefly before passing it to me. “Ah, of course. All Sushulana needs is help with grammar, and some of the finer points when it comes to expressing herself in a more acceptable way.” She looked the Alfar squarely in her dark-eyed gaze. “Challenge accepted.”  
  
At the end of the meal, I returned the sword-breaker to Sushulana, and her crystal wand. She smiled and ran a fingernail over the steel implement, making the tines ring, but she shook her head at the wand. “Heirloom of house Courcel, yes, I liking that, you keep and make so.” When I tried to refuse, she told me it would only work two or three more times, and she would probably waste it anyway. Even so, it was an incredible thing for her to do, and more than made up for her earlier gaff. Words are one thing, deeds are quite another.  
  
Joscelin was still curious about the steel in that sword breaker. Sushulana and Merrin consulted briefly in a language that none of us could follow, then Merrin nodded to her and said; “A detour to the Chowat would seem in order. It will not add very much time to our journey. One day getting there, one day to look around, and one more day after that to reach your city. Hopefully.”  
  
Three days! Reaching home from where we were sitting in as little as three months would have been the norm, with the winds and storms and travel by land looming before us. Instead of the dead of winter, we would arrive before Autumn’s cool air sank towards Winter’s chilled monotony.  
  
Phedre and Joscelin were looking at each other, weighing the thrill of a ride on a Dragon’s back against the risks involved. I think that what decided them was Melisande; “Would you be terribly put-out if I borrowed your ship?”  
  
I left it for Imriel to ask why she would want to. “You are aware that the Exile decree is still in effect?”  
  
“If that Kingdom were my destination, you might have reason to be concerned, my son. I have another destination in mind. A legacy of my own, for my Grandchildren perhaps. I’m going to Kyrnos.”  
  
Sushulana had been following the conversation closely. She smiled and winked at Melisande. “Much chaos to have enjoyment of, yes?”  
  
“No. Chaos there may be, and from that, _opportunity._ I intend to make that place D’Angeline, in spirit if not in fact. I will unify it, and when I pass on, my will shall deed it to your crown, dear ones.” She wasn’t asking permission for anything but the use of our ship.  
  
Sushulana clapped her hands together, and held a double-fist over her head in salute to Melisande’s audacity. Her grammar was improving by leaps and bounds simply listening to an hour of dinner conversation. “Start inside Porto Valla, some good contacts there. Beware of Bankers Guilds, they keep the island down in poverties to keep controls.”  
  
“Just a moment… _our_ ship?” Once again, I could feel things racing ahead of me before I could say a word to stop it.  
  
“Yes, why not? It sounds as if you won’t be having any need of it yourself. And truly, what better way to ensure that I arrive at the place where I tell you I’m going?” Melisande said with a pleasant lilt to her voice.  
  
Merrin cleared his throat and arched an eyebrow at her, something of a signature look for him.  
  
Melisande ignored him completely. She held up a hand to forestall Imriel’s next objection. “Yes, I know that territorial expansion is taboo for the D’Angeline peerage, but I don’t have to look at a map to know that the acquisition of Kyrnos would barely make up for the territory you ceded to Euskerria. And when the time comes, I promise you, the people of that island will want you to include them.”  
  
“How can you be so sure of that?” Imriel had to ask.  
  
“Never question the ways of your own mother.” She intoned, and daringly looked straight at Merrin while she paraphrased him. “You may find the details… difficult to digest.”  
  
Sushulana blinked at the exchange, but instead of bristling as Merrin was, she simply raised a glass and said; “Amen to that.”  
  
  
    
  
  
We were expecting to rise early, yet it was only halfway between midnight and dawn when we were awoken by a terrible row going on down in the parlor. It was Sushulana and Merrin having an argument, and going at it hammer & tongs. It was close enough to our time to depart, so we dressed and went to see what was wrong. My fear was that this might have something to do with the Messasge Spell I had asked Sushulana to send on ahead of us to my mother. There was no question of spying on these two, yet such was the volume that much of their conversation was heard by us before we could reach them.  
  
“….  I know damn good and well what my ' _irreplaceable genetic legacy_ ' means to you. _OH_ by the unhairy balls of Orcus, could you possibly be any _more_ mechanical when you talk about me, to my very face?!” That was Sushulana, making me glad that we had never had such an argument with her. I didn’t give any more thought to how we had avoided that any more than I dwelt on how Imriel and I had never argued as other couples are apt to do.  
  
“I was _not_ objectifying you.” Merrin growled. By all that is holy, when he growls, its not something that can be compared to the way Humans do. “I also know good and well what your response would be if I tried to come across to you in a more personal way. Something more in line with what they would have of us-“  
  
“When?” She was still fierce, but also curious. “When have you ever come across to me in a way that would suggest that this silly little pink biped was of any personal interest to you?”  
  
“I tried to kiss you once. You pissed all over yourself! I’ll tell you, there is nothing like the smell of hot urine to tell you that there is not a chance in Hell of ever being seen as anything but a monster by the woman in your arms.”  
  
“What…” Sushulana’s voice went soft and quiet. We would have missed it, but by then we were nearly there. “… when did _that_ happen?”  
  
“Bah! You with your memory, it didn’t even…. _damn_ you! The fete’ at Spaeon Kopt.”  
  
“Oh? Before, or after?”  
  
“Before the Revolution, of course.”  
  
“Merrin!” Her voice rose again. “That was two hundred years ago, I was extremely drunk, and the day before that I’d seen you tare a Ship-Breaker Whale in half right in front of me!”  
  
“You should be very glad I did-“  
  
“Have _you_ ever been covered is something’s blood from head to toe? In one splash?”  
  
Now it was Merrin’s voice that softened. “Ah, yes, I see now. And to think, the whole time you were in my mouth, you were afraid I would forget not to swallow… and I was afraid you might pee all over my tongue.”  
  
We entered the parlor at that moment, walking briskly. So engrossed in each other were they that I think we surprised them both. With Merrin, it was hard to tell, and Sushulana remained as unconcerned with her own privacy as she was with that of anyone else. “Good _morning_.” Imriel said in a firm tone to them both. “That ride the Lady had inside you certainly makes one think twice about what we ourselves are about to undertake. But tell me, Sushulana, has anyone ever congratulated you on your courage? I mean to say, you must have had your doubts. After all, you have that story about Annarinda memorized, the danger involved must have been… daunting….”  
  
Imriel’s voice trailed off as Sushulana looked at him. That was another moment I shan’t forget, and I dare say that Merrin won’t either. Annarinda, the Princess and teacher that Merrin had tried to save and had killed instead. Sushulana, the only other living thing from their homeland, alive because of the shelter she hd taken inside him. Annarinda and Sushulana's stories seemed to be similar in general terms. The look on Sushulana’s face told the story;  
  
Never, in all her long life, had she associated the two events in her mind.  
  
Merrin walked right up in front of her and grasped her shoulders, bending over to look her in the face. “Stars and dust… it never even occurred to you to…. you never even _considered_ it!”  
  
“Well, no.” She was flustered, and completely misunderstanding his reaction. “It wasn’t like _that_ , I don’t think of you like that, and will you stop looking at me like I’m stupid or something? _Shit_!” She seemed close to tears as she ducked and twisted her way out of his grip and dashed out of the room.  
  
“No! I never…” Merrin did not follow her, for which I was glad. I was about to go after her myself, but first I paused to savor the utterly lost look on Merrin’s face as he turned to us, arms dangling at his sides. His mouth moved, yet no words came. It was not something I enjoyed for the sake of spite, although I could have, without reservation. No, it was more the hope it offered for my little scheme. We might actually be able to put the two of them together, by making them see each other as they truly were.  
  
The Dragon recovered his wits before I did. I was still shaking my head and hoping I wasn’t smiling when Merrin straightened up and cleared his throat. “I should be on my way now. The cargo wagon has already departed, and it will take some time to prepare. The hill, you know the one. I trust that you won’t be having second thoughts of your own.”  
  
I felt compelled to state the obvious; “Merrin, we all know she’s not stupid, she simply does not think of you as a monster. I don’t think she has for a very long time.”  
  
As I turned to follow Sushulana, Merrin took three running steps and dove out an open window. Remembering how Solon had left us, I nearly went after Merrin instead. A rush of wind and the distinctive _WHOMP_ of his wings told my ears that he had assumed his true form again. He was already flying back to that hill where he had surrendered. Imriel had also been startled, and he took my hand to give me a light squeeze. _Yes, my love, I’m real and solid and at your side, always. Even when things are at their strangest._  
  
Aloud he added; “You said that out loud? Why, so that he could not escape from it?”  
  
“Yes.” I smiled back at Imriel, and decided to include him in my hunt for the fleeing _Alfar_. “Interesting, isn’t it? He prizes his dignity so highly, and Sushulana could not care less about her own. In one way, they could be a perfect couple.”  
  
  
       
  
Melisande came along to see us off. Given the choice between sharing the ship with her or flying with Merrin, Phedre and Joscelin had chosen to come with us. I know that Phedre and Melisande, and likely Joscelin as well, had spent time together during the previous days and nights, what passed between them is something I shall not speculate on.  
  
We found Merrin atop the hill being fused over by half a dozen men, Jharroque’s men. Sushulana had asked for them, these being the most adapted to the presence of the terrifying Dragon… not to mention the _Alfar_ herself. Merrin was anything but terrifying at this juncture, and I had to bite my tongue to stifle a smile. Under the Lieutenant’s shouted and exasperated directions, the Marines were rigging up a harness around the base of Merrin’s neck and upper chest. What made me want to smile was the way the Dragon’s neck was twisting around as he tried to observe and advise their efforts. One Marine nearly dropped a saddle when he turned around and saw Merrin going cross-eyed trying to inspect the knots he was tying. Even is his natural form, there was something touchingly personal about him.  
  
Just as, when shaped as a man, his inhumanity could be so startling.  
  
Sushulana leaped from the carriage and ran in to join them, clambering up his flank the same way she had climbed the wall of the Fortress. With her help things were quickly sorted out, and I turned to Melisande to say goodbye. “I’m sorry, I never-“  
  
“Don’t be sorry.” She said resolutely, chin high and eyes clear. “You saved the Kingdom and this world untold grief. Now, promise to visit me someday with your babies, and go see if you really can save a couple of souls in the meantime.”  
  
I did so, quickly, and left those more intimately acquainted with Melisande to say goodbye in their own way as I went to have a look at what had been done to the Dragon. Under his chest was a large crate that looked small on him, and he winced as Ti-Phillepe’s coffin was lifted into place beside it. The remains of the Chevalier were double-sealed and properly embalmed, there was hardly even any smell. I did not understand his aversion, until I thought of how it would make _me_ feel to carry a box containing a dead Cat on my chest for a few days. I hastened to join Sushulana up on top with the help of the Marines. We would ride ahead of his wings, on his shoulders where his back was broadest. Two pairs of Saddles were placed one ahead of the other, and the curve of the Dragon’s back put the aft pair higher than the pair ahead of them. The warmest clothes and blankets that could be found were there as well, and for the foremost seating position Sushulana’s fur cloak hand been found and placed as a windbreak. It was indeed ruined, having dried stiffly and discolored, but it would serve to keep the worst of the cold air away from us. There was even a basket packed with food and wine, and back beyond that, between the wing-roots was a patch of new scales where Sushulana’s fiery blast had struck him.  
  
“Tough ol’ beast, ain't… I _mean_ … difficult to tell the great old Wyrm was ever harmed, isn’t it?” Sushulana said when she saw where my eyes were looking.  
  
I nodded. “Only 4 places to sit?”  
  
“I’ll snuggle in the middle and… I shall be going from place to place as we fly. With my spells I can keep warm as I check on various things.” She spoke slowly and carefully.  
  
“You really never meant to be so crude, was it really the ring?”  
  
“No, it was mostly my own fault. The ring is a crutch, and I abused it. Sidonie, for much of the time, I took the easy way, shocking people and giving so little thought to what I was saying. I know its was crass… I know its better to be polite and considerate, but its also more difficult to think about other people’s feelings before I open my mouth. Time was, I could be like you people, nice and polished, but that was before…” She stopped and looked at Merrin’s head, which was hovering near the carriage. “I lost something along the way, or maybe I just forgot how to make other people feel comfortable with me. Can you help me remember?”  
  
“With a memory like yours, I don’t see how you could have forgotten.” She looked at me in a questioning way. “You have already mastered the basics iof our language, or recalled it from your last visit, and you never forget anyone’s names! If I could do _that_ ….”  
  
She blinked, and then smiled. “Well I’ll be dipped, you haven’t been ignoring underlings, you’ve been having trouble with names all this time!” she spoke in a low voice, as if it was a conspiracy. I responded the same way.  
  
“You don’t understand, there are so _many_ , in the palace alone there are thousands, and I was never good with matching names to faces! I can remember both, but its just the matching of one to the other.” And, its true. Words, languages, sounds and songs, they stay with me, However, visually, I have always had difficulty. The names of the men who had escorted us at Kyrnos were lost to me, as were the two that had fallen in the Fortress. I was so humiliated by my own limitations that I never found the nerve to ask after them.  
  
“Oh hon-… _Princess_ , I don’t have a super-mind or anything, I just use mental tricks to keep it all straight. It works like this; say you meed a man with prominent eyebrows named Miestermann. Tag him in year head with ‘me-stir-man’s-eyebrows’. I know it sounds ridiculous, but give it a try and let me know how it works.”  
  
And you know, it helped.  
  
Merrin lowered his neck to make a ramp of it, so that Imriel, Phedre and Joscelin could climb up to meet us. The four saddles were noted again, and the leather belts that would be used to hold us in place should the Dragon turn unexpectedly, or encounter a strong draft. There were also plates of glass the size of our hands that we were to wear over our faces, that we might see clearly into the wind. Sushulana shared in these, but in little else that had been prepared. “No, don’t worry about me, lets get you all strapped in and ready to fly, daylight is coming.”  
  
Merrin finished a silent, mind to mind conversation he had been having with Melisande and spared our preparations one quick look, and nodded to Sushulana. Melisande had not left the carriage, she stood on the driver’s bench now, the highest place on the hill, to watch us go. She did not wave or say a word, standing tall and brave with an enigmatic smile on her face. She nodded at Imriel, or perhaps to the both of us, we were seated together at the front, and then with one mighty heave Merrin lofted all of us into the night sky.  
  
Much later, when asked what he thought the greatest of his gifts were, Merrin did not hesitate; “The power of natural flight.” It was not only beautiful, it was soothing to him. He had taken to wing to exercise his freedom one last time before submitting to incarceration, such was its emotional value for him. For us, it was nothing short of incredible. The earth fell away, as did any lingering misery that this venture had inflicted on me. We flew, the pull of his acceleration and the motion of his body replaced the solidity of earthly contact that I had taken for granted all my life, and we were one with the sky!  
  
We were fortunate that the sun would be behind us for most of this journey, for this was to be a mostly cloudless day. We crossed the coast of the mainland just as dawn was breaking. Merrin did not care for the clear weather, he did not want to cause a sensation across the landscape as he passed, drawing a line towards out destination for any later investigator. He used his limited form of invisibility, or flew low over the less populated areas. “Better to give a few people a brief look, than many a longer one.” He avoided towns and cities with ease, sensing them from over the horizon.  
  
As for the four of us, we tried to share his concerns, but it was a faint effort. We were dazzled by our view of this world that we thought we knew so well. From high above, it all looks so orderly, so nicely put together. Squiggles on a map cannot possibly do justice to the graceful sweep of beaches, the gentle curves of a river, or the logical progression of ridges, hills and mountains. At medium altitudes, the works of humanity stood out as straight lines here and there, or as neatly cultivated brown patches on a tan landscape. Lower down, so low at times that an arrow could have reached us, animals and the occasional human sprinted out of our path, or froze in place. Most often, people seemed oblivious to our passage. Once I heard a man shouting at his braying Donkey, unable to comprehend why his beast was panicked as we flew right over his head.  
  
Sushulana was less than enthralled, this was not her first flight. She huddled between us, dutifully looking and nodding when we pointed out something to her, but for the most part, she seemed to be napping. Phedre and Joscelin were astonished when she slipped away to check on the ropes, and scuttled out of view underneath Merrin for a moment. She re-emerged on the other side and wriggled back in among us again, and shouted “All secure” over the wind before she hunkered down. The constant blast of wind was beginning to weary us when Merrin set down at midday. It seemed so pedestrian to be pausing in our wondrous journey, and for lunch of all things, but we all did need a break. All of us were cramped from sitting with our legs folded, and it was good to shake free of those layers of fur and padded blankets. Merrin also needed to rest his wings, and he crouched as low as he could without crushing the boxes tied to his chest, to allow us to dismount.  
  
We were atop a small mountain overlooking the little Sea that separates Asia from Europa with the sun still at our backs. Merrin and Sushulana observed the shipping carefully and conferred about finding a gap in the traffic patterns while we set up a little picnic. It was lovely, and strange. None of us had ever been to Ephesus before, and now we were about to leave after having seen so much of it without ever having spoken to any if its inhabitants! So much strangeness, and yet it was now becoming enjoyable. What awaited us in the Chowat?

  
Merrin did not share in our repast, he found a meal of his own once we continued. His path once we left that mountaintop was a shallow dive that built up a terrific speed, and over the Sea he was so low that if he had dipped his wings, the tips would have been in the water. He mentally informed us that he was that low to avoid being seen by too many ships, and that being seen by the lookouts of two of them would be unavoidable even so. He took advantage of his wave-skimming flight by helping himself to a Shark and two Porpoises as he flew. I was about to ask Sushulana why did didn’t use his fiery breath to cook them, as he had the Horse in Paphos. **Seafood is best when raw** the Dragon broadcast to me, saving me the effort of trying to shout over the wind. I was not frightened or even piqued, by this time I understood that when Merrin’s mind was open, he could “hear” our louder thoughts. How tiresome, how distracting, would that be in the midst of a crowd? I thought the question at him, testing the notion of having a conversation in this manner.  
  
**The Dauphine has asked me how difficult the cacophony of thoughts about me makes my life.** Yes, he could hear me, but he could not make us hear each other. By habit, he was repeating my question so that the others would understand what he was mentally saying to us now. **There are ways to deal with it that do not require me to shut myself off from them utterly. You yourselves have been in the midst of hundreds of people when they were all conversing among themselves, its not all that different. It also helps to imagine them as music.** He glanced back at Imriel, **No indeed, I did not say particularly _good_ music. And when they become unified by a particular emotion or desire, then it becomes as unavoidable and immediate as a thousand chanting voices would be to you.** Sushulana shuddered and hunkered down lower, and Merrin thought again; ** _It was worth it_ … ah, would all of you please, hold her, or whatever it is you can do for her.**  
  
Another wave of her lingering grief had struck Sushulana, as they occasionally would in the days to come. Wordlessly, we all reached out to her as best we could, and the misery passed.  
  
Just as we were beginning to grow tired of the wind and the cold, and weary of our flight, the landscape below began to change. At first, Europa had looked like more Ephesus, but then the ground softened gradually. It also took on a subtly greener tone, and of course the air grew colder and colder as we hurtled northward. We crossed a great river, the widest I had ever seen, and the Dragon rode an updraft to gain a better look ahead of us. Sushulana had been checking the rigging again, and instead of returning to us she scampered up Merrin’s long neck, perching behind his horns. I gasped at her daring moves, and I knew that we must be approaching the Chowat. She was guiding him to a place she knew first-hand. We ourselves could see dense forest below, and a mountain range ahead that grew larger every time I blinked.  
  
Sushulana guided Merrin to a road left over from the days of Empire. It faded to a trace as we flew over it, then even the jumbles of neglected pavement vanished. Minutes later, we found where the paving stones had gone, they had been used to build a small fort that blocked the roadway. Beyond that, the road was in good repair, surprisingly so considering the semi-wild reputation of the Chowatti. Moreover, at some point in the past, they had transformed a route they could have used to raid Ephesus into a border outpost. 'This far, and no further', was how I read what I saw.  
  
The sights before us perked us up just as the cold, the cramps and the monotonous wind had put us at a low ebb. These mountains were not the tallest this world has to offer, yet they are the most picturesque that any of us had ever seen. Fall had arrived in fullest color here, and the trees were vast, ancient and full of character. The crags, the watercourses… it all looked the way painters had attempted to convey the scenery of enchanted lands. Here and there were people, tall blond and fair, dressed colorfully and watching us….  
  
Watching **_us_**. Merrin had ceased to hide our presence as soon as we had entered the Chowat.


	8. 47

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

47

  
  
  
  
Sushulana stood on Merrin’s head, waving to them, but there was scant chance this would do any good, even if there were people she knew down there. Like the rest of us, she wore a head-wrap that hide even her hair, and these glass face-plates distorted our features. Furthermore, few of those people noticed us at all, not with that Dragon to catch their eyes. It was up to Merrin to save us from a rain of arrows, and he did so admirably. It was not a “mental shout”, but more of a soothing stroke at the back of our minds. **Peace, if you please. We are not here to harm you, but to ask Hospitality. And, we bring a lost friend back to you.** This message was overlaid with Sushulana’s face.  
  
It is something of an injustice to render that message in words. It was not mere words, it was the distilled essence of each sentence. It was an invitation to be peaceful, and an excuse to feel friendly. It appeared to work, and Merrin landed in a meadow that was a respectful distance from the settlement that Sushulana had guided him to. He began to shrink as soon as he touched the ground, a disquieting feeling for the rest of us that encouraged us to leap clear of him as soon as the ground was close enough to reach safely. Merrin ended up laying flat on the crate, naked again, until Sushulana covered him with a cloak and helped him off so she could pull his clothing out of that crate.  
  
The air was cool, a refreshing change from the cold wind we had been subjected to. The meadow had been harvested of its long grass, it retained a somewhat wild texture to it. Plants that I could not identify were growing here and there, and there were no stone walls to mark property lines nor a clear boundary between between forest and grassland. We found ourselves on the north slope of that picturesque mountain range, looking up at scenery that was lofty yet gentle at the same time, the slanting rays of the sun passing overhead to light the red-gold foliage to perfection. We ourselves were in shadow as the sun dipped just far enough behind a tall peak.  
  
It wasn’t a quarter of an hour before a group of men emerged from the trees. The message of peace notwithstanding, they must have been brave, coming out with pole-arms and little else to investigate the place where they had just seen a Dragon landing. Sushulana dashed up to them, chattering away at them in their language. It was a very strange tongue, and from her mouth it was a little like a child speaking a blend of Skaldi and Caerdicci, underwater, and backwards. They knew her, and as we made ourselves presentable she explained a few things, made them stop looking all about for Dragon-sign, and lead them to were we were. The Chowatti are a fascinating blend of the best of Nordic and Asiatic features, Blond hair and fair skin, yet with slanted eyes and high cheekbones… perhaps it was their looks that had caused Sushulana to gravitate towards them, even if her dusky skin and short stature would mark her as one apart, and her ears separated her even further.  
  
Sushulana pointed us out one at a time, speaking our names slowly and clearly for them, and then repeated the pointing gestures with our titles added. Merrin was simply designated as “Drache’.” Eyes widened and a question was asked by the elder man present, which Sushulana promptly translated; “ _Hetman_ Xoltan wishes to know what honors and ceremony are due the heirs of the D’Angeline throne and their advisors.”  
  
All eyes turned to me, except Merrin, who grumbled at Sushulana; “You _told_ them…”

  
“I did. I have known these people for years. That fellow standing next to Xoltan is Geyza, his champion, and the lady is Proska, also know as the Wisdom of the Clan.” Xoltan was old enough that he hair had faded to white and he had a limp, but was still a muscular and fit figure of a man. Geyza was every inch the warrior, covered with fine-link chain mail that he wore like a second skin. Proska was of an age with Xoltan, and the tallest of the three, and armed as they were with spear, shield and sword.  
  
The trio patiently gave us time to consider. “Hetman Xoltan, Lady Proska, Champion Geyza, as we have come unannounced and unexpected among you,” I paused to allow Sushulana to translate, and could not help glance at Merrin as I continued; “in extraordinary circumstances, I ask that no special considerations be made at all. Please treat us to the hospitality that you would any other friendly traveler from our Kingdom. It would be helpful if we knew how our countrymen might be received here.”  
  
Sushulana’s eyes flickered. “I’m going to leave that last part out, you will see why soon enough.”  
  
Proska nodded approvingly at me as she and the _Alfar_ chatted back and forth. As one might expect, they were most concerned with Merrin. He soon stepped up to speak for himself, which surprised me until I thought of how languages would be no barrier to someone that could pluck the very thoughts, and the answers they wanted to hear, from people’s minds.  
  
Phedre was piqued at being left out, translator was normally her duty, and one she fulfilled well. She had been holding Sushulana’s ring, and now she pulled it from the little pocket were it hand lain, and tried it on. Phedre made a face, and then blanched, pulling it from her finger again as Sushulana turned back to us. “What?”  
  
Phedre handed the ring back to her. “Its so… intrusive! How can you stand it?”

  
Sushulana shrugged and accepted the ring, slipping it back on her own finger with barely a flinch. “It takes a little getting used to, I suppose that having no personal boundaries of my own can be a good thing, eh?” She did grimace a little as her own words caught up to her, and then took the ring back off. “Enough with these crutches.”  
  
The Chowatti had heard that, and understood part of it. Proska showed a faint smile, the rest were simply puzzled.  
  
The warriors formed an honor guard as we were lead to the settlement. Along the way, Sushulana was kept too busy with questions directed at her to tell us anything, and so we were left to our own observations. The place we found was like other large villages in the rougher parts of Europe, and yet not so _much_ like. The only fortification was a stone tower, strongly built and tall. The streets were unpaved but strewn with gravel. Different streets had different colors of gravel, and I later learned that this was the tailings of the various mines in the area. The place was situated were a creek met a small river. The only cultivated fields were clustered around the creek, and they looked tight and carefully tended. Houses were neat and simple, rustic and free of liter. Not all places were so clean and well cared-for, I did see a few places that stood out by being unkempt with surly teen-agers as the most common residents there.

  
We were taken to a large and warm building where the men were separated from the women, and even Phedre remarked on what a sense of security Sushulana and Merrin’s presence lent us in this moment. A bath was offered that we postponed until the morrow and changed clothes into wonderfully warm Doeskins padded with wool. Proska was a solidly built woman that has see her share of fights, so the scars on her hands and feet testified. She did not fuss over us, indeed she never once made as if she were about to touch us as we wrapped heavy skirts about us and pulled on decorative woolen jackets. Sushulana chatted back and forth with Proska as if they were old friends, translating little before we were on our way to a wooden walkway that lead to the flat roof of the Mill on the bank of the river.  
  
Near to that roof was the steeply sloped bank of the river, which had been terraced and lined with wooden benches over gravel walkways. Torches were lit as the sun dipped lower, and the whole town gathered in an orderly manner to see us. Our men joined us wearing their own versions of Chowatti garb and sat next to us on the benches on the roof… Merrin and Sushulana seated at the farthest ends of the bench. In the still evening air, we could be heard by the crowd by raising our voices just a notch above our normal conversing voices.

  
Zoltan arrived on the roof last, wearing a long white coat that matched his beard, and walking with a large knobby staff that made his limp far lass noticeable. He tapped the flooring 3 times and assumed a formal air, standing at an angle to the side of our bench that allowed him to address us and the crowd at the same time. We were spectators of much of what followed, the _Alfar_ giving us clipped, brief translations in her informal way between long monologues. Firstly, the fate of the thousands that had followed her to Carthage was revealed. The Chowatti were understandably relived to know that hardly any had died, and that more than half of them would be returning soon laden with Silver, gems, iron, trade goods other loot. The rest were claiming lands there, and would send word if they had not already. Some had, and while the rough outline of what had happened there was already known, Sushulana was the first witness to return with a full accounting.  
  
Many eyes were already on Merrin when Xoltan asked; “And what brings you to us in such company?” Phaing pointed right at Merrin and began her tale by introducing all of us. We stood up, and Phaing stepped up onto the bench we had just vacated and walked down the length of it, touching each of us on the shoulder as she spent about 100 words regaling her audience with our titles and accomplishments. She showered Merrin with the same volume and enthusiasm, but did not touch his shoulder. As she stepped down from the bench, Xoltan repeated his question in his formal and flowery way; “What is it that causes you to be here? What has befallen you since you left our boys in the desert?” He did not look upset, indeed there was a twinkle in his eye. He, and all the rest of the Chowatti, were asking for a good story.  
  
Sushulana did not disappoint them. A very physical storyteller, it was easy for us to follow along. She started by speaking a great deal about Merrin, and skipped much of our chase, so the audience found the tale far less confusing than we did ourselves when it was happening. Where our stories came together was emphasized by her gestures at me, and the surprised looks from the crowd. Mention of Melisande and then Solon placed us on Cytheria before she did a quick summary of her confrontation with Merrin. With her back to the crowd, she imitated Merrin’s basso voice, but the hilarious part was when she spun about and did a high-pitched imitation of her own voice, looking up at the sky and stamping her foot.  
  
Soon after, once the destruction of her ship had been pantomimed, she turned to us, and asked; “What happened then, when I was asleep, and you all came around with a whole new attitude?”  
  
Merrin rose to the occasion before the rest of us could reveal how we dreaded this aspect of our adventure, and smoothly assumed the role of storyteller. In his case it was more of an oration in the manner of a robed Tiberian patriarch of ancient times. He went to the railing and positioned himself as Xoltan had, facing us and the audience at the same time and cleverly not approaching Sushulana any closer than she had with him being at the other end of the bench. Half of the time, he seemed to be addressing her directly with the crowd as merely a witness and as far as I could tell… he was telling the unvarnished truth of it all. Sushulana was standing with her back to the crowd by the time he was done, leaning back on the railing with one hand over her forehead and the other laid along the side of her face. She did no have to see many of the younger Chowatti half-rise, and be retrained by their fellows at certain points in Merrin’s speech, or how some of them appeared ready to throw things at him. She must have heard the gasps, the hisses, and also the satisfied grunts of approval when he described his captivity and the false rescue. When he described the interview in the meeting room from his point of view, the people watching settled down, and everyone looked to Sushulana.  
  
After a moment, she turned to finish the tale, turning so that she would not have to face Merrin as she did. Sushulana very briefly told of our rescue and re-entering the Fortress, and when she came to the meeting room she because more animated. She pointed to us dramatically many times, and by the reactions of the audience I could tell what part of the encounter she was speaking of. The Chowatti surged to their feet, applauding wildly when my stratagem was revealed, and there was awed silence as Sushulana fished by telling of how she was saved by Merrin. They all sat there, looking at each other, wondering how much of this story they could believe.  
  
Xoltan stepped forward with masterful timing, gesturing Merrin to go to the railing with him. He took Merrin’s right hand and Sushulana’s left, and raised them high to receive a standing ovation. Then he turned to us.  
  
Merrin returned to his seat while Sushulana knelt on one knee before us to serve as translator … she claimed that it was so that everyone could still have a clear view of us, of course. The Chowatti took it another way, and they began to look sad. They began to realize that they would be loosing her soon.  
  
The questions were the usual sort, only surprising to us as we had imagined the Chowat to be more isolated that was the case. Phedre and Joscelin were well-known thanks to the Chowatti women they had liberated from Darsanja. Imriel was known, somewhat, due to his trek across Vralia. As for myself, Sushulana’s telling of our adventure had made me an instant heroin in their eyes.  
  
“What was it like to be at sea during a storm?”  
“What sort of place is Cytheria… Aragonia…. Terre’D’Ange?”  
“How many people live in your City/Palace?”  
  
And so on, until one question made Sushulana look down at the floor as she translated. “What do you intend to do with ... me?”  
  
I had no answer at first. Phedre leaned forward and ask sharply; “Sushulana! We are here at your suggestion. You did _tell_ them that, didn’t you?” Phedre was a little peevish, understandably so as she had not been able to follow a good hour’s worth of conversation.  
  
“Oh course I did!” Sushulana was instantly angry and started to rise to her feet. I leaped to mine and took her by the hand, guiding her to the railing and facing the gathered Chowatti.  

“Sushulana has requested that we welcome her to our city, and I fully intend to do so!” I told the suspicious crowd through her. “There are certain issues that have to be dealt with, and we intend to help with that. Justice is not part of our plan here, whatever can be called a crime in this whole story is not something that can be addressed in any mortal court.” I looked at Merrin when I said that, and being the sort of person he was, he simply nodded to me without any change in his calm expression.  
  
Sushulana smiled and squeezed my hand. She held that smile and simply shrugged at the follow-up questions that followed, and then began to yawn. Proska and Xoltan took the hint and escorted us back to the Lodge without any further ceremony or attention given to the last shouted queries. Suahulana’s yawns were not entirely theatrical, and we were all glad to be seated around a fire-pit with mugs of warm Cider at hand and free to relax. Through Sushulana, Xoltan apologized for rushing us into that meeting. “It was better that than letting rumors run wild all night long, and we will be free to be more informal tomorrow as we go about answering your questions.” He worked at his boots with a sigh, adding; “Anyone who thinks they can make Sushulana go anywhere she does not wish to is a fool, and there is no fool like a young one.”  
  
I was about to say something myself when Xoltan’s boot hit the floor, and most of his lower leg went with it. Three winters ago he had lost a duel with an ax-weilding Skaldi, and his post as head of an army at the same time. Still leader of his Clan, Sushulana had sought him out when she had returned to this world, and his status had been enhanced as a result of being the _Alfar_ ’s preferred contact with the Chowat as a whole. There was a considerable history here, but it was too late in the evening for us to pursue it.  
  
After a light meal served on wooden platers placed on our laps, we were ushered to sleeping palates in the loft upstairs with promises that we would have the run of the place on the morrow.


	9. 48

    

 

 

 

 

 

48

  
  
  
  
In the morning we were dressed in finer examples of the local garb, which appeared to be standard for men and women; Fur-lined boots with baggy trousers tucked into them, padded shirts and fleece-lined vests over that, and fur hats with earflaps that could be tied up out of the way. This was all gratefully accepted by us, it would serve us well on the next leg of our flying journey.

  
Proska and Xoltan were at a loss as to what to do with us, having only one day to make an impression on D’Angeline Royalty and no precedent for such an occasion. Sushulana suggested that we be left to our own devices, free to wander until mid-afternoon when we would gather here in the great Lodge to talk things over with all the elders that could be gathered by then. The Chowatti were happy to agree, and Sushulana was just as happy to guide us to those places where she thought our “wandering” would be most fruitful. With a smile and a tiny shake of our heads, we allowed ourselves to be swept up once more in the whirlwind that was Sushulana.  
  
Our first stop was at the forges that Joscelin was so interested in. As such operations go, it was nothing remarkable, even a bit primitive to our eyes and certainly not a place to linger. We were not without an escort, and Geyza took us to one side before we could be scorched or become a hinderance to the workers. We entered a storage area where rocks, slag and small ingots were kept in neat piles.  
  
“This is the real key.” Geyza explained through Sushulana, hefting a small bar of metal that did not look so different from steel in my eyes. “They call it Wolfram, not terribly useful in itself, its brittleness caused it to be overlooked for a long time. But, mix it with steel, and you really have something worthwhile.”

  
“That’s all there is to it?” Joscelin examined the bit of metal closely.  
  
Sushulana and Geyza exchanged glances. “Not entirely, the mix ratio and the way its done are very specific. Something more science than art, and as you can understand…”  
  
“These people are not willing to give it away without some sort of compensation.” Merrin finished for her.  
  
“Just so. And, its not a matter of coin, that is another … yes, I should show you another thing these people have found in the soil here. Something more in the nature of a curse than a blessing.”  
  
A raft ferried us across the river, the men who polled us across waving away payment in exchange for our forgiveness of their stares at us all. It was an easy thing to forgive; not only had they never seen D’Angline folk, but we were all living legends to them. All who heard of the sparing between our men and Sushulana were impressed to hear that it had ended the way that it had. The last time Sushulana had been pressed to fight a duel in _this_ part of the world, she had not stopped cutting at the hands and feet.

  
I had been a comparative unknown, until the night before. During the ferry ride and the lazy stroll to the next thing Sushulana wanted us to see, knots of Chowatti that came  & went peppered us with so many questions that I was glad they had to be filtered through the _Alfar_ and her patient translations. After an hour of that, we arrived at a tumble of rock and quartz that blocked the path we had been walking along. Up close, it was more than a tumble, a cliff had collapsed into a ravine, blocks the size of houses lay all about, and quartz fragments were spread like snow over the ground where we rounded the curve in the path where the view was best. Warry of jagged bits that might cut into my boots, I paid careful attention to what was underfoot.  
  
I gasped aloud when I saw a seam of gold in one brick-sized chunk of quartz.  
Squinting into the sun-dazzled cliff and the boulders all about us, we could see it now. Gold, embedded everywhere in the crystalline and easily shattered rocks. Most of the seams were paper-thin, some were as thick as my little finger. The Cliff was 50 feet tall, and just what had fallen must have contained tons of gold.  
Tons of it!  
  
“ _This_ is your idea of a curse?” Imriel asked, incredulously.  
  
Geyza began to speak, but Sushulana shook him off and told the story in her own way. “These people knew that this was here for generations, but the cliff was unstable and they stayed away from it. About 40-some years ago a caravan of foreigners came through here and just started in on mining it, not listening to any of the locals that tried to warn them off. They even waved weapons at the Chowatti, so … they were left to it. You see the result.” The fall of rock was vast enough to wipe out a good-sized caravan. Thinking of that made this place feel dangerous, there was still plenty of cliff looming over us. “Now, don’t get me wrong, these people know the value of what they have here, and that is why they are terrified of it.”  
  
Alone among us, Merrin nodded and started to climb one of the boulders. “Yes, of course. They have a simple, happy, well organized life here. Not terribly involved in the turmoil going on all around them, are they?”  
  
Sushulana sighed. “Not unless they are the ones starting it. Their history is part of that attitude; Soulumi, Solumanna, even the names of the place they came from and their name for themselves have become blurred by time, a greater span of time than I have been alive, I think. Like the other dwellers of the far north beyond Skaldia they had become fair-skinned and blond with light blue eyes to allow their bodies to drink in what little sunlight came their way. Unlike the others, there was an ancient strain of the far-eastern branch of humanity in them. Yes, the eyes, the cheekbones, those set them apart and drew them to me… and I to them. We find them here now instead of the far north because of the Vralians. With all that land to call their own, I don’t know why they would encroach on what little these people had, but they did. The Solumanni were backed into a corner with nothing but tundra and frozen ocean behind them. When all the pestering and pressure became too much to bear, their people split in two, with half hunkering down where they were, and the other half joining in one tight little army that plunged into the mass of Vralians, determined to break free or die.  
  
“As you can see, the swiftest, the strongest and the smartest did not die. They broke through the hard crust of the warlike tribes around them and plunged into the soft underbelly of Vralia. They became a marauding horde of Barbarians, in effect if not in intent. They wandered about, taking the easy path of looting and moving on, for more than a generation. They would have met the same fate as any other horde eventually, had their random journey not brought them here. This hard-bitten group of men and women had crossed through bitter Pine forests growing in sandy soil, dense swamps that were frozen most of the time, and great empty grasslands… but, they had never seen anything like this place. You folks have seen so much. Look around again, and imagine what it looked like to them. It was practically deserted, the people who had lived here before had gone to reap what they could from the demise of the Tiberian Empire. This place, this backwater, or _Chowat_ , is so far from being the crossroads of Europe that this gold does not need to be guarded. But, there is another reason for _why_ it isn’t being exploited.  
  
"These people know what they have here, a very productive land that provides all they need, if they work it properly. And they have, that meadow we landed in has been so carefully worked that you could not even tell that it wasn't wild, can you? They have 27 different names for grass, if you can believe it. Its…. a lot of this is over my head, but they have something here that suits them very well. Once in a while the young Bucks start to get out of hand, and they have to be turned loose, that’s why they were so glad to send a couple thousand of the wilder ones with me, and why a whole branch of the people went out to take over Illyria in the last century. Every so often the younger folks get the wrong message from the old stories, and …” She looked around at all the gold, and shook her head. “This would only make things worse.”  
  
“Of course it would.” Merrin crouched on a boulder and picked at the pebbles of glittering stone. “The rest of the world will come rushing in. Probably not Armies of soldiers or thieves, although that will always be a threat. No, it will be armies of merchants, tinkers, entertainers and gamblers. People will come from all over the world to play their games, cheat people out of what they have, and to introduce these people to the wonderful world of corruption. Muddy ruts will replace their colorful gravel lanes, forests will be chopped down more quickly than they can be regrown, Hayfields will be used up and familiar faces at the market will be replaced by men that nobody knows and who’s answers seem to be very good… even as all the Gold goes up in smoke and within a lifetime everyone here ends up with less than what they started with.”

“You make wealth sound like a curse!”

  
“This sort usually is, Dauphine. Found wealth, not earned or even planned for, but that which falls into one’s lap is what we are talking about here. It brings sudden change and the whole world come rushing in… some of it with good intentions, but that only helps to mask the rest of it. I _am_ a little surprised that these people grasp the full of it.”  
  
“Not all do.” Geyza nodded to Merrin, and Sushulana translated his words for us. “People can gather what they want, but there is a prohibition on taking it outside our lands. Only with special permission can-“  
  
“That Gold in your ship!” I couldn’t help interrupting him, the words just flew out of me. “The funding for your expedition to Carthage, they let you take all that!” Sushulana nodded, and before she could answer me I knew why it had been allowed. “You were taking out the _trash_ for them.”  
  
She laughed, and nodded. “Yes, to a place far and away, but I barely made a dent. This is not the only deposit of its kind, within a 3-day walk of here are so many more that this qualifies as the largest complex of Gold mines in the entire continent. In no way are they ready for this.”  
  
“So, what else have you come up with?” Phedre asked Sushulana, and then looked to Merrin. “These people have shown extraordinary discipline in keeping this secret for so long. How can they solve this little problem of theirs?”

  
Merrin shrugged. “What I just described is an inevitable process, humanity operates in just that way for as long as I have known of it. What, you thought that I would have an answer for this? Sushulana?”  
  
The _Alfar_ sighed. “I can’t say, all I have been able to do is smuggle some out, and suggest that they start spreading all sorts of tales about monsters and Ghosts and other horrors…. and why I suggested that you fly clearly visible over the border. I can do more, if the elders approve. But, all that does is put up a sophisticated ‘No Trespassing’ sign, and delays the inevitable.” She looked to Imriel and myself. “My hope is that you good people might be able to come up with something more permanent.”  
  
Merrin’s comment on the inevitability of all those bad things had stung me. So instead of reacting with shock or even reluctance to Sushulana’s request for an answer, I merely smiled and asked in return; “How long do we have to come up with a solution to all this?”  
  
“Oh, Proska and Xoltan already know we are here, and what I am telling you. It will probably come up sometime about mid-afternoon as we are meeting with the elders over mead with fried sausages  & onions.”

  
  
        * * * *

  
  
The subject did come up, and during the meeting with Xoltan and 4 other elders from nearby communities. It was Phedre that had the most firm answers. The greatest self-inflicted difficulties the Human Race suffered were generally brought about by changes that came about at too rapid a pace. The solution to their embarrassment of riches would take generations, great patience, and consistent efforts that they must not deviate from. We proposed that they should prepare an embassy to be sent to us in the Spring, as well as some of their more promising younger folk who could come and study our ways directly, as well as learn from our tutors as could be arranged. We also emptied our pockets of the remaining coins we had and gave then over to the Chowatti.  
  
“Take these and use them to make molds, imitate foreign coins and then rub dirt on them or whatever else you need to do to make them look older, used. We expect that you will come laden with gold and ready to pay your own way, but if your gold looks this way it will simply seem that you have made some good deals during the journey.”  
  
Phedre's suggestions were taken to heart, but they were not as comforting as the Chowatti had hoped for. Sushulana stood up and spoke to their concerns with a lively smile. "Yes, its not going to be fixed completely or overnight, or maybe ever to your satisfaction. Problems, boy oh boy have we got problems to wrap our heads around, things to do with our minds and issues to solve and oh dear we might never be bored again... isn't it _great_? Isn't it wonderful to have a challenge like this to rise to?"  
  
I suppose its just as well that she did not happen to see Merrin's smirk.  
  
Would that I could remember more of that meeting, it was warm  & friendly and our ability to dispense with the formalities of our home court served us well, I do believe that we made the best impression possible on those people… and Proska later confirmed this with the gifts we received the next morning. However, it is the events at sunset that dominate my memories of that day.  
  
The porch of that large and rustic lodge had a 2nd floor, and it was here that Sushulana and I found ourselves after the meeting had broken up and we left the hall so that the furniture could be re-arranged for the more formal dinner and entertainments that would come that night. This porch was supported by a pair of large and irregular tree-trunks that had been stripped of their bark and branches trimmed, but otherwise left intact. The wood had been treated with some oil that left them shiny and richly colored, and the stumps of the branches made good support for the flooring and roof. The irregular shape of the trees meant that the railing of the porch ran outside one of them, and here we stood to look out at the sunset and the people milling about outside. More than half the men and a third of the women went about armed, and yet there was little of the posturing or threatening behavior that one might expect in Skaldi lands, for example. Once again, the combination of setting sun and autumn colors took my breath away. I dearly wanted to come back to this place for a visit in the future, at a time when my mother and Kingdom were not fretting over my fate, and I was telling Sushulana so when she shushed me and took a firm grip of my arm.  
  
Voices came to me then, our men…. “our” men if one could include Merrin in that. A discussion was underway as they walked out onto the porch. I had barely started to go to join them when Sushulana moved to pin me to the trunk with her slight body. By staying still in just that spot, we could remain hidden while the men continued their animated argument.  
“My turn!” she whispered up to me with a sly wink.  
  
Soon it became obvious even to my ears why she wanted to be the eavesdropper on this evening; they were talking about _her_. “Yes yes, and I’m sure it will come as something of a shock to you, but I am at least as familiar with her finer points as you folk are.” Merrin huffed, and added pointedly; “Although I may never have had chance to gain the physical appreciation of her that some of you have.”  
  
“Well, that’s a pity for _you_ then.” Imriel was not cowed in the least by Merrin’s attitude, nor shamed by that reference. How I wish he could have seen Sushulana’s smile when he added; “On a certain level, she is so warm and all-encompassing that your fiery breath seems like a plaything by comparison.”  
  
“Oh, seeking to challenge me now?” Sushulana laid the side of her head to my breast as she fought down her giggles. Merrin was using a more bombastic tone now, and I think he was just getting warmed up. “Think for a moment about how vast and varied my experiences have been. What you speak of is but one of a handful of experiances that have evaded me over the millennia, and I won’t even consider continuing this conversation until you can guess what one of the others might have been.”  
  
Joscelin was clearly at a loss. He said something to buy Imriel a little time. “Swallowed a Star lately?”  
  
I put my forehead to the top of Sushulana’s head to stifle a groan.  
  
“You have never buried a child of your own.” Imriel said, softly. “That is why you could never go to Sushulana directly, to try to ease her grief. You had no frame of reference, and-“  
  
Merrin snorted. “I never _had_ any in the first place. No, I would never have subjected any offspring to growing up in my shadow, always being compared to me and a legacy that it would be impossible for them to fulfill! That was my reasoning while Emperor, and afterwards… it seemed so pointless in any event.”

  
Sushulana did not stiffen when Imriel had said what he did, instead she peeked around carefully, to make sure that Imriel could not see us where we were hiding. When Merrin mentioned his reasoning for not having children, she rolled her eyes up at me and made a face as if to say ‘such an arrogant bastard!’  
  
“There is more to this than you know.” Merrin continued. “Any relationship with Sushulana is bound to involve children, she won’t settle for less.” She bit her lip and smiled up at me, nodding.  
  
“But… how? Your bloodlines…. is that even possible?” Joscelin was very much out of his depth here.  
  
“Oh yes, it is, and their is precedent. When it comes to bloodlines, my sort is said to be universally intrusive, while hers is universally receptive. It would be inevitable… an possibly fatal.”  
  
“For _who_ , us?”  
  
“For her! Don’t you understand? I am shaped as a man now, but I assure you I do remain a Dragon. Bloodline, seed, and all that truly matters. _grrrrr_ ….. don’t you know how dragons are born? We claw and thrash and kick our way out of an eggshell, smashing our way into the world in our first test of survival. Now, does Sushulana look like she can lay eggs to you? Can you imagine what it would be like for her body if our offspring did that to her _womb_?!”  
  
Sushulana went stiff and cold, still pressed up against me. Another woman might have pressed a hand to her sex protectively, she did not and yet I could feel her quiver there where she was up against my leg. Oh yes, she heard his words and understood exactly what it could mean to her… Gods, if there is a more intimate and grotesque horror that a woman can face, I wish never to hear of it.  
  
From the way Imriel and Joscelin muttered and shuffled about, it sounded as if they were ready to give up on the whole idea right then and there. I was as well, but Merrin felt it necessary to continue. “How could any of you expect me to take that risk with her, after all I have done for her?”  
  
“ _What_?” Sushulana pushed away from me and strode out to meet Merrin head-on. “Oh, ‘ _all you did for me’_ is one thing, but this body of mine is one of the few things I can still call my own. How _DARE_ you decide what is going to happen here,” I peeked around the trunk just in time to see her slap her belly, “or here!” She pounded a fist to her chest just above her heart. “You don’t even know for certain _what_ would happen, you _can’t_ know, this is uncharted territory we are in now. You don’t know any better than I do what could come of this.”  
  
Merrin stammered for a moment before he could say anything intelligible. “No… but the risks-“  
  
“Oh yeah, tell me about the risks! A woman takes her life in her hands every time she tries to bring a baby into the world! We ALL have the courage of a woman to thank for our very existence …  Sidonie, the difference for you and I is that we get a chance to return the favor someday. We take a lot of guff from you men, but if it anyone with male body parts-“ Merrin held up a hand to interrupt her, which only angered Sushulana more, so she raised her voice a notch, -“ if _any_ of you _ever_ tries to get in our way when it comes to that sort of thing, may the Gods save you _and_ your fucking balls!” There was dead silence for just a few heartbeats too many. “I’m going to go see if chow is ready yet,” Sushulana said to me over her shoulder and walked swiftly back inside.  
  
Merrin watched her go, with a slack jaw and wide eyes. I hesitated to follow her, and so I was still within earshot when the Dragon turned back Imriel and Joscelin and said in a subdued voice; “Ahmm… alright. I concede that you may have a point. Was there.. anything further that you think I should know?”  
  
  
By the time the evening was over, I would be remembered in the Chowat as ‘the Lady of many smiles’.


	10. 49

49

 

Home.  
It was all I could really think about, crowding out my observations and interactions in this lovely place.

I had never been away for so long, not when I was in my right mind, but that was not why my thoughts were drawn to Terre D’Ange, the city, the palace. In hours, I would have to present Merrin and Sushulana to the court of my ancestors. A Dragon, and Elf… and I was only certain of the later’s intentions on many levels.  
I had no idea what I would do when the time came.

Hundreds of Chowatti from far and wide had gathered here to see the Dragon in his true form, so there was no desire for a pre-dawn departure. Nevertheless I was up and pacing about our little sleeping chamber before sunup. Imriel sighed as he watched me, and pulled me back into bed by the sleeve of my robe. “We’ll see this through together,” he promised me. “and I have an idea that may help us. Sushulana can do those illusions, so she can appear human. That will smooth her entry into the city well enough for us to make our introductions.”

“Oh course… until someone touches her, or she becomes tired of playing the game. Its not that, Imriel, its the intrigue we take for granted as part of our daily life. I fear she’s not very good at it, thus her dislike for such things. We have seen how she can resort to violence without warning…”

“Merrin will be there, he will more than make up for what she lacks.”

“Oh,  _will_ he?”

Imriel, naturally, understood exactly what I meant by that. “Its up to Sushulana now.” He nodded and grinned up at me as I took him by the shoulders and looked deeply into his eyes. “Yes, the stand Sushulana made on the porch left quite an impression on him. After you left with her, he admitted that he looked into her mind. She was actually thinking in terms of bearing Merrin’s offspring when she said that, and without any trace of revulsion! It intrigued her, so what she was saying wasn’t hyperbole-“

“With her it never is!” I said that, needlessly, and I suppose I was practicing a statement I would have to repeat many times in the weeks to come.

“I know its not… but Merrin was absolutely floored. He told us what he had seen in her mind because he simply could not process it. He needed our help to sort it all out.”

“He, who has been living, dreaming and breathing her for all those years?” I rolled my eyes, and in so doing I noticed that the sky was brightening outside.

“Merrin kept himself remote from her and lying to himself about why he was even doing it, the whole while. He as much as admitted it to us. So,” Imriel sat up in bed and picked me up, setting me lightly in his lap, “He is amenable to our notion about putting the two of them together, now. The question is, can we make Sushulana come around?”

It was not a rhetorical question, I had  spent nearly the entire previous day  by her side. “Love, she is just getting past a lifetime of being angry at him. If anyone we know [i]can[/i] set that aside, its our little Fey friend. She is powerfully attracted to him, I’m just not sure that its in a good way.” Imriel glanced at me sharply. “Oh no, not some dark yearning for abuse or some other impulse of her past… its more in the nature of too much admiration. I think she feels she is not worthy, he’s somewhere between a Caesar and the Gods to her. Her self image is not the mess it once was, but I just don’t know how we can make her see herself the way the rest of us do.”

“That does not strike me as such a problem, Merrin can simply _show_ her… like no other man can…” Imriel’s voice trailed off, and then he smiled so warmly that I had to pinch him to find out what he was thinking, so impatient was I for a the breakthrough his look promised. “Don’t you see? They really are the only two that would be able to get along with each other. Merrin could see in an instant what the truth of her heart really is, and Sushulana is the one woman that won’t be bothered by that sort of intrusion. She has no delicate ego that-“

A blow struck the wall next to our bed with such force that it make the wood panels rattle, and startled us both so badly that we leaped to our feet.

“Oh   _shut UP_ !”

Sushulana’s voice carried through the wall and she kicked it once again. Before we could respond, there came the sound of drumming feet on the floor, a door opening and her dash down the hallway.

“I suppose it was our turn to be spied on.” Imriel said resignedly. “But did it have to be _now_ ?”

I cast my nightclothes away and began to dress in the Chowatti garb again. “She was supposed to spend the night in Merrin’s room, there are two beds in there, damnit! I’d rather she had something to say about our love-making last night.”

“Who is to say she does not?” Imriel’s philosophical banter was coming close to earning him a slap from me, I was terribly agitated at that moment. Imriel was able to calm me simply by asking what exactly was wrong. I began to assemble my thoughts into words in what Imriel calls my ‘typically meticulous way’… and before I could say very much at all, I started to smile again. Sushulana's big ears might have just saved us a great deal of work.  
“Could this be what they call the turning of the tide?”

Imriel shed his own night clothes and hugged me before he began to dress himself. “I do believe it started turning when she kicked him in the balls, and then walked away without killing him. By her lights, I suppose that such an attack was little more than a mild chastisement.”

“Yea Gods… that poor Dragon.”

 

                        *                                  *                                  *

 

Poor Dragon … or perhaps not.  
When we arrived at the meadow, he was in his true form, sitting up on his haunches with head held up high as he basked in the admiration of the gathering Chowatti.

We had not been able to catch up to Sushulana. When we arrived we had to slip past a knot of warriors standing as stiffly as tree stumps and an artist sketching madly away before we could catch a glimpse of her. It was not strange or frightening to be passing through this well-armed crowd with no escort. They all knew who we were, and might be possible that some of them harbored ill-wishes for us or our Kingdom, but it is safe to say that we and Terre D’Ange were far from their thoughts with that great Dragon looming over them.

Would that my own thoughts could have been so distracted. In less than one full day I would have to present that Dragon to my own home, and begin our explanations of so many things that it made my head ache simply listing them. Imriel’s hand came up to my face often, to smooth my nose, so frequently did it wrinkle up that morning.

Merrin brought his head down just as we arrived, and looked at some children that were leaping about and shouting to get his attention. There was no way for us to know what they were saying without Sushulana nearby, and she was fussing with the Chowatti about the cargo. Merrin nodded to the children indulgently, he drew in a deep breathe and vented a column of bright flame up at the sky. The people gathered around were awed, some of those remarkable folk cheered, but that was not enough for the Dragon. Right after he finished with the flames he roared at the whisps of smoke curling up towards the clouds, at full volume. On and on it seemed to go, until Merrin suddenly cut himself off and cocked his head so that he could hear the echo of his own roar coming back from nearby mountains.

He looked pleased with himself, and the children were thrilled when he winked at them.

Sushulana was less pleased, kneeling with her hands over her ears and yelling at him in the Chowatti language. Those nearest her cringed, those farther away laughed and I swear that for just a moment, I saw a Dragon smile.

When we reached Sushulana, she had little to say, and jerked a thumb at Merrin’s wrist while shaking her head. That limb was encircled by a chain made of Gold so long that it would have wrapped around myself and Imriel if we were standing side by side. Each link had been made of metal as think as my thumb, and showed signs of being roughly, and swiftly, made the night before. Phedre had flatly refused to accept a neat pile of half a dozen massive ingots of the yellow metal the night before, as a reward for the six women she has brought out of Darsanja. Somewhat put-out by this, even after Sushulana had backed Phedre up in no uncertain terms, the Chowatti had transformed their gold into a tribute to the Dragon. He has accepted it graciously, and let them know he would be grateful to be landing in the City of Eula with some wealth to his name.

Imriel was startled to find out that Merrin was basically penniless, and had been for a long time. A Dragon with no treasure… once again, the legends had lead us astray. For my part, I glanced at Sushulana, and caught a glance Merrin sent her way. Treasure can come in many varieties, and the one he’d valued above all had never been far from his thoughts.

Geyza came trotting up with enough burly men to rig up the harnesses, and once again Merrin submitted to the indignity of being trussed up like a beast of burden. He bore it with better humor this time, with thousands of enchanted Chowatti looking on, and Sushulana darting here and there to ensure everything was just so. Phedre and Joscelin joined us while this was going on, in company with Xoltan and Proska. The ladies were chatting amiably, and I was surprised to find that Proska knew enough Illyrian to have some limited and artless conversation with Phedre. It was clear that had our visit been fated to last much longer, the Comtess of Montreve’ would be hard at work learning her 14th language. It was a relief to see that Phedre had been following her calling, learning all she could while ingratiating herself to these people at the same time. It would be of great service to us as we tried to help these people. Seeing the Chowat safely into the the wider world was no dashing adventure, it would be a process requiring years of patience and understanding.

When Xoltan arrived, I could not help staring at his false foot. He moves so effortlessly that had I not known, I would have thought he was just a little sore. Xoltan smiled and started speaking to me, and then impatiently called for Sushulana to translate for him. Through her he passed us seven small spheres of polished Quartz, each lightly veined with gold. With these, we would be able to return to this place, guided safely by any other Chowatti clans we met along the way. These stone balls were carefully rounded and polished, and spoke of many things to us. The crafting of them told us that these folk were different from the undisciplined Skaldi in important ways. This showed us that the other Chowatti were aware of the Gold deposits here, and were equally wary of what it meant to them. Lastly, these were meant to be tokens to show our Queen and any other members of our inner circle that doubted our testimony.

On Sushulana’s word, they were trusting us to be the answer to their problems, rather than the cause of even greater problems. It may be burdensome to be so highly thought of, but there are also times when it is so uplifting that you feel almost as if you have wings. In that moment, I felt as if I could fly home without any help from Merrin.

In exchange, Phedre gave them her best map of Central Europe, showing all the territory between their border and ours. This was something new to the Chowatti, and we had to pause to explain some of it to them… and in doing so, we noted something distressing to us, personally. Our path to the City of Elua Would either take us across the most heavily populated part of Ceardicci Unitas, or over the Alps. Without clouds, it would be impossible for Merrin to conceal his passage over the southerly route, and flying over the snowy Alps more than a month past the autumn equinox promised to be an exercise in misery. If the weather did not favor us, we might have to wait for nightfall somewhere in Illyria. Instead of arriving home comfortably after nightfall, we would be racing the dawn to our home.

The Chowatti men tucked us in and Merrin shoed all the spectators away with his wings. Sushulana was grumpy, and the locals took that to be her sorrow at leaving us. I knew differently; she was resisting being set-up with Merrin, and we did not press the issue. Our estimate that Merrin would be the more difficult case in this matter had proven to be dramatically wrong. Ah, so be it then. We were approaching the City of Eula, a place Sushulana herself dearly wished to be, and the very best place in the world for Love to live and grow… even the most unlikely ones.

Amidst cheers and songs, Merrin lunged skyward. The fine mood of the Chowatti was a great contrast to what the people of Paphos had endured under Merrin’s shadow, Imriel and I both attributed that to Merrin’s change in mood.

 

                           *                                 *                                 *

 

Before we rose from the sun’s shadow cast by those mountains, Merrin banked and turned in an exhilarating way through a narrow pass, and landed back at the Quartz cliff. I could not understand why and before I could ask, Phedre unbuckled herself and walked briskly down one of Merrin’s wings, Joscelin right by her side.

**Phedre asks me to explain, and that you allow her a moment.** Merrin mentally whispered to us, as Phedre pulled a small wreath from under her cloak and wrapped it around one of the rocks. **Her birth family vanished many years ago, she never found any trace of them. The description of the group of outlanders that caused the fall of that cliff jogged her memory, she recalls how and why they left her to the Night Court. There is no way to be certain, her family may or may not be under that avalanche’s debris, nothing that could still be found under there will ever verify the truth of it. The fact is, it rings true to her, its just the sort of fate that she feels that her father would have lead them to. Here, or somewhere else, I don’t think it really matters. In this place, she is saying goodbye to them.**

Imriel and I put our arms around each other under the cloaks, Sushulana stood with her hands on our shoulders as we watched Phedre kneel before the wreath with Joscelin kneeling behind her with his arms wrapped around her waist and his chin resting on her shoulder. After a long a private moment, they rose to rejoin us.

The Dragon kept his wing extended like a ramp, making it very easy for our elders to rejoin us. Turning to face Phedre. I could not see the Alfar’s face. Phedre was showing some concern, and I was afraid that Sushulana would have another of her episodes. Instead, Phedre took Shusulana into her arms and the two orphans shared a moment. The moment was not silent; “Never waste time, never take anyone for granted, never leave anything important unsaid. You will never know it when you are speaking to someone for the last time.”

All of us, even Merrin, went completely still on hearing Sushulana’s words. Phedre sighed into Sushulana's shoulder. “Those words should be carved in stone.”

“Ti-Phillepe’s marker then. Come sit down, let me help you get strapped back in. It’s high time you were home again, don’t you think?”

This day’s flight was less exciting by comparison. Lush, rolling hills gave way to more of the same. Lovely to be sure, broken by several great rivers, but few people or their works to be see anywhere. Sushulana spent the morning hunkered in with Phedre and Joscelin, and I dozed once or twice on Imriel’s shoulder before we reached our mid-day place of rest. A mountaintop, once again, and a colder one. Merrin had chosen his vantage point well, from there we could see the distant blue-white sparkles that marked the arms of the Illyrian Sea, due south and to the west as well. Far to the northwest were the white tips of the Alps, and I caught Imriel’s grimace as they reminded him of the chill of Vralia. West of us, of course, was the most heavily populated part of Caerdicci Unitas… and clear blue skies.

Joscelin took one look around, left the sack of Goat-cheese and hard sausages that was to have been our lunch where it was packed, and said aloud; “Well, what are we waiting for? Sushulana, will we all fit in his mouth, or is there another way?”

Imriel backed Joscelin's suggestion up to the amazement of myself, Phedre, and Sushulana. The _Alfar_ herself gaped at him, and then at Merrin’s great head as he tilted it at Joscelin. A rumble indicating laughter came from the Dragon’s chest, and Sushulana immediately burst out laughing.

  
“No, no…. that would not be necessary.”Merrin told us. “If you would like a shortcut, very well, but on this occasion it would not be the equivalent of my trying to break you free of a burning house.”

“Well, sure enough.” Sushulana added once she was done laughing. “However, its going to be daylight over there in the City for a good long while. Just how dramatic can we afford to be here?”

“There is another way.” I said to Sushulana. “ _You_ can walk between worlds, you did so to follow Merrin and to lead him here. Can’t you get us there yourself somehow?”

“Yes, well…” she looked down at the ground, and then up at Merrin. “I could, if we were all the size of ‘wee-folk’, and it we can move our cargo somehow. Sid, that’s some powerful magic, any other mages there will know something’s up, and I’ll be too drained to do any other spells for the rest of the day. And that, I’m sorry to say, includes any illusion that makes me look like a human being.”

We all put our heads together, and found a way.


	11. 50

50

 

 

A doorway in the latticework fence around the Queen’s garden shimmered. The handful of people there saw a brighter kind of sunshine there which they later said appeared to be the light of heaven. It was not, it was simply the sunlight shining on a distant mountain at a more direct angle. Stepping through that doorway came six people wearing simple but dazzlingly white homespun garb embroidered in unfamiliar patterns. Last to enter was a tall man with an exceptional presence, holding his hands outspread… followed by a pair of coffin-sized boxes that floated through the air with no visible means of support. The first clue for the astounded D’Angelines that this was no mere vision was when that man let the boxes thump to the earth with visible relief once the gateway was cleared. Preceding him were a man and a woman who between them were supporting what appeared to be a slight girl with weak knees. The dark-hair woman shot an exasperated look back at the tall man when she heard the boxes thump to the earth. At roughly the same time the girl shook off the help, taking a deep breath as she strode forward with a resolute glint in her strange eyes.

The second clue that the onlookers had that this was indeed an Earthly visitation was when the lead pair broke into a run, heading straight towards them, and the one that looked just like the Dauphine waving her hands over her head shouting “Mother! Have the guards stand down, we’re back!”

This is my best guess at how it must have looked to Queen Ysandre, her guest and the quartet of Guards who all looked as if they were ready to carry her off before I could arrive. I sprinted across that garden, casting aside my fur hat and leaping over low plants as I came. The Queen pushed the Guards aside and caught me in her arms, hugging me and giving me a shake as if to make certain I was no Ghost. She was doubly surprised, by our manner of appearance and by my display of emotion. When last she had seen me so animated it had been during what we called ‘the Battle of Imriel’, and my displays had been very much the negative of what I was showing now. When she pulled back, one hand on my shoulder and one cupping my cheek, and looked into my eyes. “Ah, Sidonie… you _know_ , now, don’t you?”

“Yes.” I said simply. Now, I knew. The loneliness of command, the aloofness required to keep one’s head when all those around you are loosing their own. I had Imriel with me to share in all my difficulties, how my mother had managed without my father at her side half the time was beyond my keen. It made me feel a little smaller in her presence, and it also reminded me that I owed Sushulana a slap for that “uptight” comment.

That brought my head around just in time. While Imriel spoke to the Guards reassuringly and directed their attention to our cargo, Phedre and Joscelin approached with weary smiles. Behind them, Merrin’s resented yet powerful grip was holding Sushulana back at a respectful distance. I went straight to them while my Mother greeted her Companion and her Champion, and Imriel exchanged brief formalities with the distinguished elderly gentleman that had been sharing the table with the Queen. In a low voice, I told them that gentleman’s name, hoping that our exotic guests would recognize the significance; “Barquiel L’Envers.”

Sushulana understood immediately. Here eyes narrowed as she turned to Merrin and muttered “Oh, ‘some grandfatherly aristocrat’, eh? Yeah, _good_ call.”

Merrin had used his clairvoyance to look ahead of us before Sushulana had cast her spell, and that was just how he had described the Queen’s guest. Now the Dragon and Barquiel locked gazes, and no doubt found much in common with each other. I was not overly comforted by what I saw in their eyes.

Sushulana and Merrin did not miss their cue to approach the Queen and give the proper curtsy and bow, or what was proper in their minds. Sushulana touched one knee to the flagstones and kept it there, while Merrin’s heels met with a sharp _clack_ and the angle and depth of his bow indicated that he was meeting an equal that circumstances had placed in a position superior to his own. My Mother and Uncle were impressed with Merrin, inevitably, and Mother was so enchanted with Sushulana that she stepped forward to gesture for the _Alfar_ to rise. The same hand that made the gesture also swept back Sushulana’s hood, and a sharp intake of breath from the Queen and Duke greeted the reveling of her features. Ysandre did not pull back, nor did Sushulana flinch when the Queen traced the outline of one ear with abject fascination. “My dears,” the Queen said breathlessly, “only weeks overdue, and yet I sense that you have a tremendous tale to share with us once again.”

“Tis true, mother, but the time… I fear that what we allow the archivists to hear will have to be carefully filtered.” This earned me a sharply questioning look from every D’Angeline present, except for the one that the Queen looked to for advise. Phedre was nodding, gazing at the ground resignedly, and one finger indicated the satchel that never left my side.

“Perhaps it would be best to begin with unburdening you of what you carry there, Dauphine?”

 ***

Moments later we were all seated around the table, all eyes on that satchel.

Merrin had introduced himself as an “ex-Emperor and landless sojourner in need of rest.” and Sushulana had quietly referred to herself as “a supplicant in need of asylum, should you and your Gods be willing to grant it.” She planned to make a pilgrimage of every major Temple, as well as every House in the Court of Night Blooming flowers. Merrin reminded her that she would perhaps need the Queen’s permission before even beginning such activity, and the tension between the two of them became palpable once again.

The attention that would have been focussed on the two of them was held in abeyance by that weighty satchel, and the need for swift action. Now that the time had come, my voice caught when I opened my mouth to speak of it. Imriel smoothly stepped in to explain as he pulled the 3 sheets from within it; “On these pagers are the names an locations of two dozen active agents of the Unseen Guild, which we acquired last week with the help our two new friends here.”

Sushulana laughed and rolled here eyes. “We helped? Oh, of course, by stupidly getting ourselves captured and tortured until you and the Princess rescued us!”

I clapped a hand down on her arm and hissed; “Please! Distracting and amazing tales of daring-do can wait, this cannot!”

Imriel continued as the _Alfar_ nodded at me, and winked at him. We knew her well enough to understand that she was showing gratitude, however the looks she was getting from my mother and uncle were memorable, until Imriel described what was on those sheets. He held up the one Hrolvath had written first. “Skaldia, Illyria, Sicilia.” Then Anna’s page, “Caerdicci Unitas” and at last; “Terre D’Ange.” He held the paper so that they could see the number of names written there. Barquiel reached for it, I could see a tremor in his thick fingers, and Imriel had one more thing to say to him, directly; “I’m glad you are here. You are one of a small handful of people we would not have had to dismiss before going into this.”

Barquiel accepted that and the paper with a thoughtful grunt, and scanned the list. “I don’t recognize these… oh balls!” He looked more closely at the last name. “The foremost Huntsman in Kusheth!”

We had not made that connection, and when the paper was passed to my mother, another new one was made. “This archivist, I confirmed her appointment last Spring. I understand your reluctance to involve those offices just yet.” Would that this was all there was to it, but she continued. “None of the Nobility, all commoners that have reached the limit of their advancement, or soon shall. I suppose that we will find that is the common thread in the Unseen Guild’s recruitment schemes. How long do we have before the rest of the Guild knows we have this information?”

I smiled, both in pride at my mother’s deduction, and at the other half of the news regarding that Guild. “A number of agents equal to the number on that list were killed on Cytheria that same night, as well as the Triumvirate controlling that Guild.” I turned back to Sushulana, “And for that you will take the appropriate credit.”

“With pleasure. They were so _rude_ , after all.”

The look and smile Sushulana gave me revealed a bit more about how close we had become, more than I would have liked before the Queen and Duke had a chance to focus on the question at hand. At that moment a further distraction was provided by Joscelin’s sudden departure from the table to take charge of the handling of the boxes. The Guards were unaware that one of them held the remains of-  
“Ti-Phillepe.” Phedre sighed, as if going empty.

My mother recoiled from the table with an expression of sorrow, for Phedre, and then a measure of exasperation. She was disgusted that the fates had seen fit to inflict another unwelcome pain on her dearest friend, she rose and came right around the table to hug the Comtess from behind before she could react. While they were having their moment, Barquiel tapped the paper that had been written with a D’Angeline hand. “His?”

He had asked that of me. “No, the Chevalier killed the man who wrote that, who happened to be his lover of many years.”

Even Barquiel had the decency to wince. “ _Another_ tragedy for House Montreve?”

“Less than what might have been the case otherwise. Had the situation been allowed to fester, or had any been able to escape, knowing what you have in your hand…”

Merrin leaned forward with his elbows on the table, fingers steepled and angled at Barquiel. “Be that as it may, it would be well that decisions be made before sunset, should you wish to influence the more distant people who’s names you now own.”

Instead of arguing about propriety at a moment like this, the Duke and the Queen put their heads together as they looked over the other two lists, and the score of names there. The only question they asked was about one of the names on Anna’s list. “Carthaginian?”

“Yes.” Imriel answered. “Female, young, no doubt clever and resourceful, favored by a Sicilian lordling… and perhaps of a mind to leave the Guild already.”  
Phedre would have more than that to say, if she thought something dire was in store for that remarkable refugee.

My mother sat back, rubbing her temples, and glancing at Sushulana. “I take it you can travel great distances swiftly, yes?”

Merrin answered for her; “At need, I can visit perhaps half a dozen of those people in one day.” He and Barquiel locked gazes, two formidable wills meeting head-on. I found myself hoping that they would find some way to peacefully coexist.

“That’s very interesting,” my mother glanced at me, powerfuly curious, “yet the question remains; how to approach them, and to what end?”

“Turn them.” Still staring at each other, Duke and Dragon spoke the same words at the same time. Merrin blinked, and then smiled, leaning back. Barquiel followed suit and anticipated the question the Queen's mouth was already opening to ask; “To us, the Crown itself? Must we invent some shadow-triumvirate for them to follow?”

Imriel shook his head. “That won’t work, there are probably a few other survivors. Farther to the east, more may have survived.”

Barquiel nodded as if he’d been expecting nothing less. “Turn what we can to the Crown then, and eliminate the remainder.”

“No!” Phedre slapped her palms flat on the table. “Merrin, you were right, about their lack of an overriding philosophy, and what a weakness it is for them. Highness, isn’t there something else we can give them, other than a choice between an oath of fealty or a bloody death?”

The Queen of this Kingdom had not looked very enthusiastic about taking the remnants of the Guild for her own, for a variety of reasons. “There must be, and I certainly shan’t countenance any solution that involves adding insufferable burdens to the remainder of your days, dear Phedre. No, if we would truly offer them a new start, it must be something else.” She thought a moment, her eyes turning to the modest shrine to Elua in the corner of the garden. “What about something more universal, some higher purpose?”

“Yes!” Phedre pounced on the opening. “The Clergy will have an answer, a way to entice these people to undo some of the damage these years of turmoil have brought us. People secretly yearn to do good things.” she could not stop herself from glancing at the Dragon, “even the most unlikely of us can be capable of astonishingly selfless acts.”

Sushulana smirked. “Yes, but, the cause of Peace? Hmm... normalcy, you mean? If it sounds as good to them as it does to me, you won’t have to ask them twice.” She turned a gaze full of admiration on Phedre. “And I agree, make a gift of this to Elua, through his Priests and their staff. Only love can end conflict in a permanent and meaningful way.”

I could not help smiling. “Hearing you say it like that.... are you retracting what you have said about War before?”

“Oh, certainly. Some of it. I'm afraid my earlier praise of Warfare was partly my inability to hold my own in a sophisticated conversation. A method of retreating from reality is to fantasize about one self being so powerful and detached that language itself becomes meaningless. So stupid of me, but also dangerous when life presents the opportunity to make such thoughts impact reality. Terribly so, in times of chaos.” She shrugged and spread her hands and continued rather casually, as if she had been speaking of a poor choice in furnishings. “ _Mea culpa_ , and sins such as that are what I firmly intend to leave behind me.” She had been speaking to me, and to the people she had returned with, and it was appreciated. Joscelin returned to us while she was speaking, and he kissed her check as she finished. However, she did seem to have forgotten about the other people at the table.

Ysandre was slack-jawed, tried twice to form words and failed... until she noticed that the rest of us had learned to take Sushulana’s forthrightness in stride. “… is she... always...?”

“Yes Highness, she is, best get used to it.” Joscelin said in a way that was both affectionate and rueful at once.

“Oh..... Merrin, your life must be a dreadfully interesting affair.” My mother was not lacking in insight, but with that she set us all back on our heels. Subtle signs had told her that Sushulana were a connected by fate, and there was no way she could have grasped the subtle undercurrents involved in the situation. Even my own smile went brittle, and Ysandre looked a little lost. “Have I misspoken?”

“Not at all. Never have I felt more complete and at peace. I dearly do hope that the Gods of this land agree that I deserve to be so... forgiven, as it were.”

Sushulana kept her mouth firmly shut, I could nearly hear her teeth grinding together. Barquiel let his intrest and impatience show in equal measure as he signed for a servant to approach. “We can have the Hierarchy of the Temple here within an hour, or two. Meanwhile, would it be too much to ask what in all the Hells you people have been up to in the last two months, and what it is that brings these two fascinating people to us as … as supplicants, of all things?”

 

We had decided to present the story where it began, with the histories of Merrin and Sushulana.

It was far less confusing for the Queen and the Duc this way, but we also had to add many times “of course, we didn’t know” at various times as we outlined the chase from Kyrnos to Rhodos. It was helpful that they merely read the note about Carthage signed “Phaing” without comment, other than to commend us for our prompt action in response to it. The Duc did put a firm halt to the proceedings to make certain that Merrin was not using his mental powers here in the Palace. “It is a dreary experience, to block oneself off from one’s own gifts. However, its far less miserable to have to listen to all the doubts, angst and fear being shouted at me otherwise. Aside from our brief visit among the Chowattii, I have become far more comfortable shut in within myself of late.”

“He’s not insulting you!” Sushulana came halfway up out of her seat, assuming the role of advocate for Merrin with such alacrity that I had to cover my smile with my hand. “Please, once you have heard the story, you will know…”

Her words trailed off as the delegation from the Temple arrived. With them were a charming and elegant pair of acolytes, Armand and Ariana, who’s purpose it was to take our guests on a tour of the city that might last hours, if they were of sufficient curiosity. How my Mother had woven the request for such folk into her message to the temple without us noticing it reminded me of how much I had yet to learn before I became Queen.

Sushulana did not want to leave, protesting even as Armand smoothly took her arm and began to guide her away from the table with such ease that for a heartbeat he almost succeeded in making their exit look like it could have been her idea in the first place. Merrin shooed her along, and promised us that they would return by sundown. He did not walk as a D’Angline Nobleman would, the Dragon was making no attempt to imitate us, and he never would. He escorted the young and vivacious Ariana out of the Garden as a foreign gentleman would, already inquiring about a change of clothes before they were out of earshot.

They left us with so many questions to be asked, and so many answers to be devised.

High Priest Atreus ne’ Pardis, great man that he was, found himself out of his depth very quickly, as neither he nor his advisors had ever heard of the Unseen Guild before today. Yes, they could select a team of trusted and suitably idealistic people to oversee this dangerous group of people. Yes, he could guarantee in integrity and competence of his people… but only if given years to train and test them and to prepare firm guidelines for all involved. Yes, he understood the need for swift action, yet it was preposterous to think that even his staff could step in to fill this void with the delicacy required, unprepared and with the alacrity we asked of him. And, on reflection, we had to admit he was right. Our wonderful, vaunted religious establishment had no covert wing at all. They simply relied on talented individuals from time to time.

Of course there could be no question of the Crown taking this on. The kindly High Priest allowed that since the Guildsmen had already forsworn their allegiance in favor of personal gain, they could not be expected to re-dedicate themselves to the Queen or even the Kingdom itself on the basis of force or even reasonable accommodation. We sent him off with our request that he start preparing, with Imriel and Phedre promising to help choose and educate a new triumvirate. At this point it was a contingency, nothing more.

“So what does that leave us with, Melisande?” Joscelin’s question didn’t sit well with any of us, especially Barquiel.

“I’d rather hoped that she was among the dead. She wasn’t one of the triumvirate?”

“No, her husband was, she had no idea, until a few minutes before he threw himself to his death.”

My mother flinched back, lips curled in distaste as she pictured that moment. “It seems you have a great deal more to tell us, can you manage it in brief by this evening?”

We did, working together and by putting off as many questions as possible. There was more laughter than I had anticipated there would be, but looking back it is entirely forgivable. The space of just a few days made everything so much easier to accept, and even Phedre had to admit that Sushulana had given her all to overcoming a situation that we alone could never have triumphed over… even if she had been the cause of it all. Barquiel found our accounts of her fighting ability difficult to believe, and flatly refused to accept that a burst of profanity had stopped an angry Dragon in his tracks. He was so adamant that Imriel recited Sushulana’s tirade word for word (Phedre has yet to forgive him for doing that in front of the Queen) and added that if Barquiel wanted to see her sparing then it would be the easiest thing in the world to arrange. Altogether _too_ easy, should Merrin fail to be the restraining influence on her that we all hoped he would be.

Merrin himself was a far more serious matter, all six of us pondered what his presence in this world could mean for us. He lacked Sushulana’s reverence for our way of life and our gods, there seemed to be no restraint on him at all aside from his oath to me and his affection for the _Alfar_.

“And so you are trying to put the two of them together?” My mother asked.

“They already _are_ together, and have been for a very long time, emotionally.” Phedre answered. “All we are trying to do is make them understand that fact with their waking minds. Merrin has come to see it, just yesterday he admitted it, and I dearly wish I could have witnessed that moment.” She cast a wry glance at Imriel and myself. “But the trouble remains Sushulana’s reluctance, and the process is such a delicate one. I do not believe that there is anything that any of us can do right now to help them along. Keep a close eye, yes, but as things stand… I think we have to leave it to her as much as possible.”

“Right.” Barquiel grumbled, shifting about in his chair with a rare display of nerves. “On the one hand, we have an _Alfar_ , an ELF, with a history of mental issues who has more destructive power at her fingertips than a Squadron of Cavalry. On the other, a Dragon, the same one that roasted Carthage and who has also been pushed to the breaking point by his travails…” he leaned towards us, sweeping the entire gathering with his famously hard gaze. “… and we are supposed to trust that their love for each other will transform them into the sort of people that we can live among with any ease, let alone trust?!”

Imriel raised a glass to his former tormentor and smiled. “Only in Terre D’Ange, no?”

I winced, mainly to hide a smile, and held up a hand before they could all start in. “Its not up to us.” Yes, that gained me their attention, and held it. “Sushulana has specifically asked that she be allowed to present herself to our Gods. His presence here indicates that Merrin is amenable to that as well. Perhaps he can even be swayed to admit it, but I would not press the matter, not just yet.”

Barquiel could not hide his doubts, and when the Queen glanced at him the Champion had to give voice to them. “Dauphine, you sound very sure of that, of _him_.”

I sounded more certain than I was, but Imriel was there, as always, to save me from any misstep. “We really can’t be all that sure of Merrin, but we can be sure of Sushulana, and the hold she has on him. And, forgive my honesty, my Love, but if there were no Sidonie De’ Courcel in this world, I would walk through fire or fight any army on this Earth to make her mine. I know of few men who would not try, if they had any chance.”

I laughed, and nodded. “Forgiveness? None can be asked, I am planning to keep her close by, my own self.”

Barquiel was barely mollified. “Its not a matter of fire or armies, we are hoping that a Dragon will bend his formidable will to accepting our ways. I will admit that the notion pleases me, but how can we be certain of his sincerity? Will there be a sign from above?”

All eyes went to Phedre, as if drawn by a flare of light. She looked down at her lap, and laid one finger along her nose. “I’m afraid that that’s exactly what we are likely to see, before this is all over.”

 

***

 

We tired of the Garden, with its iron chairs and deepening chill before the sun had set. Barquiel retired to his apartments to ponder what he had heard, and to prepare himself for hearing the more detailed revelations of our activities. His preparations included several bottles of Lombeldin’s finest.

The sky was purple when Elf and Dragon returned to us. They found us in a parlor furnished in greens and golds, and paneled with vibrant wood recently imported from Jebe-Barkal. I sat on a pile of pillows by my mother’s knees, head resting on her thigh as we became reacquainted. I had seen in her eyes a similar look to what I had seen when Imriel had liberated us from that evil Carthaginian spell. That was the day she had abdicated her throne to me, temporarily. It was also the day she had begun to look at me as if I had surpassed her somehow, and I did not like that look at all. It wasn’t fair that she or anyone else should think that any escapade of mine could overshadow her remarkable life.

Imriel sat across from us on a couch between his foster parents, very much at ease as we began to settle back into life in the Palace. Our home.

Sushulana and Merrin parted company with their charming young guides between the inner and outer doors to the parlor. This must have been Merrin’s idea of a gratuity; allowing the acolytes another glimpse of the Royal family before sending them on their way, and without putting us (or them) through another round of formal greetings and farewells. The afternoon must have been a pleasant one for them, they entered smiling and Sushulana had deigned to allow Merrin to link arms with her. He was able to maintain his hold as they greeted us, she with a more polished curtsy he with a bow that was the same as before.

Those were the second and third things that I had noticed about them. The first thing was their new clothes. Merrin wore a season-defying white Jacket trimmed with silver, with blue trousers and shirt. Sushulana had left her cloak in the entry hall, revealing a blood-red dress with a plunging neckline and whose layers of modest skirting resembled an upturned tulip. Both outfits bore the unmistakable lines of-

“Favrielle!” Phedre leapt up, aghast.

“Yes, you like?” She twirled and fluffed the skirting, and then gave Phedre a merry wink. “Oh, don’t fret, she lives. Although I must say, she is in more dire need of an attentive man in her life than any woman I’ve met in your country thus far.”

Merrin sighed through an indulgent smile, and let her go so Sushulana could greet me, I would not sit still until the both of them were settled in. “Armand and Ariana took us there first, and we returned there as the last stop on our tour to pick these up. Our guides could have warned us, the famous lady and our Sushulana insisted on trading insults for several entertaining minutes, and then for several more while the acolytes and I perused the wares.”

“You left them alone together?”

“Yes, Comtess, and when we returned, we found them thick as thieves, making my choice for me from among unclaimed leftovers. Be at ease, two explosive personalities have met, and the result was far from a disaster, as you can see.”

  
“But, the fitting!” Phedre was still just as incensed as ever, and now we found out why. She rounded on Sushulana. “You can’t tell me that your hood and your hair were able to conceal you during all that… she saw the real you!”

Oh, yes, there was _that_.

Sushulana shrugged her concerns off. “Fear not, Merrin managed to convince the seamstress to keep what she had seen to herself, he can be good at that sort of thing. In this case, I think that handing her a chunk of gold the size of a horseshoe may have boosted the power of his persuasion.”

“I believe that she yearns for a chance to fit you out properly.” Merrin corrected her gently. “She sees a unique opportunity to showcase her skills, in one such as you.” He chose a seat for himself, a small couch, and left it up to her to follow him or find another place for herself somewhere in the room.

Before I could say my own piece, or even finish admiring Sushulana’s dress, the Queen spoke directly to Merrin; “Speaking of that, my Guards were amazed to discover a pile of Gold links under a pile of discarded furs in my garden. It has been sent off to the assayers, all 57 _pounds_ of it. It is being rendered to a greater purity as we speak.” Merrin inclined his head to her, grateful. “A horde such as that does seem at odds with your reputation as a Dragon, one that is not the materialist of legend.”

I perched on the right arm of the plush chair my mother sat in, and Sushulana was delighted to accept an invitation to take a place on the other arm. “The Chowat, we have much to tell you about that place,” And she began with her early dealings with them, the two of us bringing my mother up to date in a way that reminded me of the way Alias and I would inform her of our day’s adventures, in years gone by. Dear Alais, what would she make of all this? There was something that Sushulana mentioned that I was not aware of; “I left the hand-sized crossbow with them.”

“What…. why did you do that?” We had only taken one back with us, a dangerous curiosity to be studied.

“I was there as well, it was late that first night.” Phedre informed us. “Sushulana, Joscelin and I showed that poisonous little device to Xoltan, who took us to see his master weaponsmiths right away rather than wait for morning. They confirmed our assessment, which was based on your experiences in the Fortress. Its a clever idea, however its one that simply does not work very well. Even his people don’t see how it could be made to function reliably without a certain amount of luck.”

Sushulana nodded and continued for her; “Those arms of the bow are steel, and the only way to cock them was one at a time. The thing is too small to get enough leverage otherwise. The whole thing is an over-complicated little mess, and an evolutionary dead-end in the field of weapons development.”

“But…” I looked back and forth between Sushulana and Phedre. “You left it with them.”

Sushulana answered before Phedre could say something soothing and diplomatic. “Yes. We had to leave them _something_ , don’t you think?”

Something material, solid, something more real than the stories we told, or the vague promises of helping them in the future. “Yes, I suppose so.”

Merrin sighed with a pained expression, and shifted in his chair. I thought that he had something contradictory to say, until Sushulana said “Still?” and went to him. She made him lean forward and pulled his jacket down around his elbows so that she could massage his shoulders. “Carrying us halfway across a continent was a bit much for the mighty Merrin, wasn’t it?”

Phedre smiled as she watched them. “You know, there is a Temple where they specialize in that sort of thing. Not that there is anything wrong with your technique, as far as I can see, however you yourself could benefit from some similar attention, yes?”

Sushulana shook her head resolutely. “There is a funeral and a wake, and we must finish briefing you and the Duke-“

My mother stopped her in mid-sentence. “You came here because of your fervent belief that we 'got it right', will you allow us to guide you through the days to come?” The _Alfar_ could do naught but nod and continue to tend to Merrin’s kinked musculature. “Very well then. The funeral of the heroic Ti-Phillepe will be a State affair, and as such it cannot happen any sooner than the day after tomorrow.” She held up a hand to Phedre. “Please, you must let me do this for you, and for him. And let us all hope that this was is the last time any of you face such dangers.”

Phedre and Sushulana both subsided, and Merrin nearly nodded off. He brought his head up sharply and focused his gaze on the Queen. “Thank you again for your understanding, and your hospitality. Before we take advantage of the later, may I ask if you have come up with a solution to the problem of the Unseen Guild?”

We hesitated, and I think Merrin would have accepted being left out of the situation. However, we had run into a dead end, so we told them what we had so far. To their credit, neither of them suggested that they be put in charge of this situation, and thus concentrate even more frightful power in their hands.

“Very well,” Sushulana said slowly, and thoughtfully. “Firstly, I think you may be looking at this wrongly. This is not a group anymore. The Guild is shattered, we are speaking of individuals. Left to their own devices, they will choose as many different paths as their are people in question. Some may turn to a life of crime, some others may go the route your mentor did, Phedre… and forgive me for saying so, but to some people’s way of seeing things… that in itself could be damn near to criminal activity. Some will do their best to forget they were ever a part of such a thing, some will try to rebuild the organization. I agree that the Higher Priests have the wisdom and the integrity that we need involved here, but not the experience. Mayhap some of the very people in question are already of a religious bent, and will be ready to leap to what we propose when they hear of it. They themselves could be a big part of the solution to the problem they present.”

“Thats all very well and good,” my mother agreed, in principle, “but how can we know where their hearts truly are?”

Merrin grinned and arched an eyebrow at her, then spoke in a kindly way as her mouth went tight. “This has been a long day, for us all. A great deal to hear, and assimilate, and I admire the way you have dealt with it, Highness. For my part, I beg rest tonight that we may continue afresh in the morning.” He spoke to me next. “Dauphine, once decisions have been made, call on me to help implement them. Keeping Sushulana out of mischief may not be a full time job for me, hopefully.”

The _Alfar_ ceased her massage, bipped the back of his head with the heel of her hand and requested a sleeping chamber of her own for the duration of her stay.


	12. 51

51

 

The next morning we went straight to the Temple of Eula to see the High Priest on business he could have anticipated, and also on behalf of our guests. Nothing could have prepared Atreus for Sushulana and Merrin, and so we sent word ahead that he should plan to make a day of it. Phedre and Joscelin would not be joining us, they had a distraught household to manage and a funeral to arrange. Ysandre had put her resources at the disposal of House Montreve, and graciously left the actual use of them entirely up to Phedre.

Thus it was that our group of half a dozen was now filled by my Mother and my Uncle. The arrival of such an august party did cause a stir, but one that the Hierarchy  smoothed out quickly. If there is one place in the City that is equipped to deal with a sudden visit from Royalty, the Temple was the place. The grounds and the buildings, the subtle grace of everyone in attendance there… all of these things have been described elsewhere, and that is just as well. My thoughts were crowded with the business at hand, and the dire importance of making a good impression on Atreus, for Sushulana’s sake. She was off to a good start long before we entered the inner chambers, or even left the courtyard. She left our procession and walked straight to the great statue of Eula, where she knelt and kissed his foot and laid her head on that cold stone. We caught a glimpse of a beatific smile under her hood; Sushulana had reached another important goal.

Merrin made as if he was about to go to her, but Imriel was quicker, naturally, and blocked his way smoothly. The dragon was among us to hear it when I explained to Atreus; “She wants to be one of us, to join with us in our faith. Her quest to do so would be the stuff of legends, if we were free to tell of it.”

This High Priest may have been new to his post, yet he was uniquely suited to appreciate Sushulana’s desires. He had stepped in to fill the void when the previous patriarch of our faith had stepped down in the aftermath of Carthage’s assault on our minds. Atreus’s ancestors had emigrated to Terre D’Ange one small step at a time from the Ceardicci frontier, finishing up in the small city of Pardis on the border of Azzalle and Kusheth. After three generations of hard work and intermarriage, they had built enough prestige to allow one of their number to be recognized for his talents, and Atreus was universally accepted as a worthy High Priest. Nearly as tall as Merrin, he smiled indulgently at Sushulana, his face wreathed in a ash-blond hair shot through with silver. “I believe in her heart, she already _is_ faithful to Elua. What else truly matters?”

He was taken aback by the looks that passed between us, and by Merrin’s grimace. “Its not a question of _her_ faith. It is a matter of just how much strangeness your Gods are willing to accept.”

  
Before Atreus could react, the Queen stepped between them and said; “We have so much to discuss, all will be made clear to you. I hope you had no other plans today, good priest. Furthermore, I hope that it will be understandable if we wish to speak to you alone, with no others present… at all.”

Atreus was neatly diverted from what he was about to say to Merrin, and after a moment of surprise he smiled again, at Ysandre. “There _will_ be someone present. If this is all as important as you indicate, my chosen successor will be there. T’wound be rather inconvenient if I were to slip in my tub and break my neck tomorrow, and you all had to repeat whatever it is that you need a full day to tell me, your Highness.”

 

 

  ***

 

Emilienne Timaine had such a talent for being nondescript that rendered her nearly invisible when she so desired. We had to be reminded that she had been in the Garden yesterday, all of us but Imriel.

Once we were settled in around a circular table in the most secure part of the inner sanctum, Barquiel swore the Clerics to silence in terms that could not be taken lightly. Then Sushulana doffed her cloak and sat with us, hair swept back and face held to catch the light fully. We gave Atreus and Emilienne a moment to accept what they were seeing, and to ask a few questions. Answering Questions was our purpose here, in large part.

We were not there merely to explain things to Priests, we were also there to complete the telling of the tale to the Queen and the Duke. Once again Sushulanan and Merrin told their stories, guided by our questions this time, and the four of us gave a more detailed account of our month of pursuit and the cataclysmic night that it had lead to. By afternoon we had quaffed many pitchers of water, eaten a light meal, taken several breaks, and were at last ready to hear judgement passed on our activities, and to see if Merrin’s proposal for dealing with the Guild members was acceptable.

In that, we were successful beyond our expectations.

Emilienne’s first active participation in the discussion was to take that paper up in her hands and study the names of the D’Angeline members of the Unseen Guild. These names had never been read aloud, and will not be revealed in these pages, either. The one she saw and re-read several times, fingers trembling only a little as she informed us; “This is my niece. It would be… ” The formerly controlled Priestess found it difficult to form the words, and so Merrin spared her that when she met his eyes.

“There is no need for you to go anywhere, least of all away from here. Call this a blessing, as it may well be.” His voice was more than resonant, it was a comforting presence that made me think of the purr of some large Cat. “If I may ask, how involved has she been in your career?”

  
“It was she that prompted me to join the service of our Gods in the first place, some 33 years ago.”

That would have been damning enough, but Merrin alone seemed to be encouraged by this. “And at what point did she start to show a greater interest in your work, and your prospects here within the church?”

Emilienne thought carefully for a moment. “She has always been a source of encouragement, being so devout, despite our relationship she and I are of an age. After she became a widow she withdrew a bit… and then, yes, things changed four, no, five years ago. She began to lend me advice, telling me things that invariably turned out to be correct, and helpful to me. I never imagined…” She looked down at her hands, as if she had done something wrong with them.

“We have our candidate.” Merrin announced to Atreus and my Mother with just a decorous touch of triumph. “This niece of your chosen one can be the one to lead the remnants of the Guild to a new and higher purpose..” He looked back to Emilienne. “I suspect this particular member, your niece, joined with the intention of doing just that, someday. Her devotion to Elua predates her involvement in the Unseen guild by a considerable margin, this Church is her real anchor. It won’t be a matter of turning her _back_ , its likely that she will do whatever penance asked and be thrilled to unburden herself to you. Handled correctly, this will be just the breakthrough we need.”

There was much more to it than that. Emilienne could scarcely believe that the ruin she’d seen ahead of her could so easily be converted into a boon. Atreus certainly did not want to loose her, but he could not compel her to stay under the circumstances. It fell to my Mother to encourage them to do as Merrin suggested, and for the gruff Barquiel to grudgingly acknowledge that the Kingdom would be best served if we treated this development as a gift. The Duke also suggested that in this case, Merrin’s special talents would not be required. The Dragon appeared relieved to hear that, one less chore for his busy schedule.

“This brings us neatly to the question of the two of you.” Atreus nodded at Merrin and Sushulana. “We must educate the pair of you in the tenants and the means of observing our faith. Thus far, you have made observations and heard tales, what we must do now is make certain that your expectations will meet the reality of this religion in a way that is acceptable… yes, to _you_. Elua’s faith is not intended soley for those of a certain bloodline, and you will not be the first to approach me from outside our borders… although it is safe to say none have ever come from so _far_ outside!” He could not help smiling at Sushulana, indeed nobody at that table that saw the way her dark face was shining could withhold a grin. “Ah, I am very much looking forward to helping you in any way I can, dear one. Your pilgrimage through our temples will be a joyous thing, I feel it in my heart. However… the journey will be smoother if you can at least appear to be more… like us, in certain ways. I can tell that you dislike doing so, and that helps us love you all the more, however-“

Sushulana was ready for this. She whispered a spell and passed both hands over her face, then asked; “Will this suffice?”

Nothing had changed but her ears, now human-sized and rounded, and her eyes were still noticeable but only in the way Chowatti eyes would be here. It was enough, barely, to render her striking rather than alien and riveting. Atreus smiled and reached across the table to take her hand for a moment. “Perfectly wonderful, I would still recognize you anywhere. Continue to use your name and, please, do your best to forget the one you signed that letter to the Royal heirs with. Should someone ever call out to you, it would be best if you did not react to that, for obvious reasons.”

Atreus kissed her hand before releasing it, and then turned to the more difficult case. Merrin was smiling as well, but there was a distant look in his eyes. He spoke before either member of the Clergy could start. “While I am intrigued, and am open to hearing all that you have to tell me, I have my doubts. Call it a healthy amount of skepticism if you will, but what I would prefer my role to be here is more in the nature of a chaperone. Dazzle the lady all you like, but I will be there to keep us both firmly grounded in reality.”

Emilienne was roused to something like anger, or an intense form of disappointment. The way she carried herself made it difficult to tell which was which. “Do you mean to tell us, what with all you have suffered, that you would hold yourself aloof from the comfort and understanding that is being offered to you?”

“As you will accompany Sushulana, Great Dragon, you will see for yourself…. if you keep your eyes and your heart open to what she takes part in.” Atreus spoke in an earnest way, not as a Priest, but as one mortal to another. I saw what made him a truly great spiritual leader in that moment. His own ranking or the occasion itself made no difference to Atreus, he was always a man devoted to helping people find their way in life. “I entreat you to leave your past behind you, as she is. Open your formidable mind to the concept of _accommodation_ , and I believe that you will find that it has been waiting for you, here, all along.”

Even Merrin could not turn a blind eye to such possibilities, but that damnable old reptile gave it one last try. “Eloquent, and touching. The Church and the Kingdom itself is well served by one such as yourself, of that I have no doubt… either of you. However, what you ask is at odds with what I am. Place myself at the mercy of your gods, without reservation? If I were to do such a thing-"

"I would be yours in a heartbeat."

Sushulana had interrupted Merrin with a quiet, intense voice that obliterated his poise. Her face was guarded, but eyes serene as she looked into the dawning comprehension in the Dragon’s eyes.

"But... if they refuse me, I will have to leave." Merrin spoke with some difficulty, as if he’d forgotten how to breathe.

She shook her head resolutely, chin high. "Matters not. What they say is up to them, and I'll carry what I learn from them in my heart if I have to leave with you. It was never, and never _shall_ be, what others say about you. What matters to me is what YOU say, do, and.... allow yourself to feel. If you let them into your heart, if you could do that… then I could be certain that there was room for me in there too. Maybe I could even come first, with you?”

“Always…. only you _could_. I…” When he looked back at Atreus, it was as a man looking for guidance. That made Sushulana smile at last, a smile meant for Merrin and he alone. He looked back at her, his attention riveted to her eyes by the promise of acceptance that we could all see there. “How…” he was still struggling to find his voice, “… how could you be so sure? This place, what is it that made you choose it?”

“Ah, you mean this world? Phedre did. She prayed to other Gods as they crossed her path, asked things of them and made promises to them.” Sushiana leaned forward and spoke with that soft, inescapable intensity again. “On THIS world, these gods are not petty and jealous of each other’s turf. These Gods that she was born under did not take offense or treat her any differently. Of course, she was being perfectly selfless and honest, always, as is her nature. But the point is… its not a matter of living by their terms, its a matter of living up to the promise that lies within _us_.”

Atreus was a little in love with Sushulana himself at that point, in his fashion. He looked to Emilienne and said; “And to think, here I was thinking more in terms of what we must teach them, and forgetting just how much we can learn from them!”

Barquiel cut loose with a short laugh of his own. “Perhaps, Dragon, you can find a way to make an apology to Yeshua and his people.” The Duke scratched his temple and wondered; “If there are any still left to be found here. Oh, didn’t you know? They have all been leaving these lands, headed for a home of their own in Vralia.”

Made to look away from Sushulana for a moment, Merrin slipped back into his old ways. “Vralia? Oh, wonderful. An infamously intolerant and self-centered religion transplanted among a people who are known for being paranoid and xenophobic to a fault. What could possibly go wrong with _that_?”

Eyes blazing, Sushulana slapped one palm to the tabletop resoundingly. She was coming around to seeing Merrin the way we all wished that she would, but they still had a journey ahead of them before they would reach a true accommodation.

Her fury would subside in time, but the look Merrin and Barquiel exchanged told me that they had become friends now, and perhaps allies in the future.

“Well, I think we have made a wonderful start here.” My Mother did look well satisfied. Smiling, she ignored Sushulana while giving Merrin a look of mild reproof. “We all need to remember to keep our mouths on a short leash in regard to certain subjects, yes?” Merrin allowed for that with a nod, while Sushulana pursed her lips and leaned back in her chair. I rightly guessed that the Queen would also be favorably disposed to Merrin. “While we are here still talking about things to be locked away in our minds, let us consider one more thing. Melisande, and Kyrnos.”

That was a subject that removed the last trace of a smile from all faces. Barquiel glanced around with predatory eyes before he ventured; “She will be closer than ever, and as dangerous as ever with that clan of exiles at her beck & call. However, with a wing of the Unseen Guild in our arsenal, and our two new allies, we will be better armed. She can be _dealt_ with…. however, I sense that it would not be a popular thing to do at the moment.” He spared Imriel and I a glance. I had an angry retort of my own, but I was busy tapping on Sushulana’s foot as I tried to prevent one of her’s from being vented. The Duke asked; “Merrin, how trustworthy do you deem her to be?”

“I did look, not once but several times. Her mind was difficult to judge with any certainty, she had been hurt badly and only days passed in her presence. However, her’s is a disciplined mind, and I believe that once she has set a course she will stay with it to the bitter end.”

“Can’t you be 100% sure about that?” Barquiel prodded.

Merrin shrugged. “Even one such as I has his limitations.”

“In any other case I would call that reassuring, perhaps even delightful news, considering what you are purported to be capable of. This is different, and certainly not the time for you to be withholding anything from us, or to be clinging to some odd notions of psychic chivalry.“

Sushulana had been simmering for some time, and now she came to a boil. With a sigh, Imriel and I let her have her head. It would be best if everyone concerned had a better idea of what a hot-head she could be, when pushed.

“Doubts and mistrust, after what you saw in the garden, heard from your own kin’s mouths… _hhnrrrr_ …” Her voice turned savage when Barquiel started looking at her in a bemused way. He had also doubted our accounts of her fighting ability, and concealed those doubts poorly. I silently sent up a prayer of thanks to Elua that Sushulana was unarmed when I saw the look on her human-seeming face. “Very well then, have a look at the Dragon.”

She leaped from her chair and spun about, casting an illusion that made it appear that the wall behind her had become a window, and the view was that of Merrin’s destruction of her ship. Not Carthage, not that brutal bit of verbal sparing, but the scene that started with his dodging that Balistae bolt and his command that the crew clear the ship before he did such a thorough job of smashing it by brute force. Even flustered, she was being careful, for Merrin’s sake. Sushulana then wiped the scene away with a sweep of her hand and turned back to us… and reigned her balance in with some effort. She must have disliked what she saw in our faces. She resumed her seat and set her nimble fingers to twisting a napkin into the rough shape of a person. “Duke, I think I know how you would react to someone who showed little faith in your words or abilities, even unproven ones. Now, I’m trying as hard as I can to better myself, and they tell me that means I have to curb my impulsiveness. So, I have to implore you, don’t scoff at me or my…. my comrade over there.” She passed a hand over what she had constructed, and the puppet jumped up and started to walk about the table. There were no strings to help it move about, nor did it move with the usual herky-jerky motion one would associate with a true puppet. It strolled up to Barquiel’s place-setting with a motion similar to Sushulana’s walk. Right in front of him, it turned away from him, bent at the hips, and slapped its own rump. Barquiel laughed, and then brought his fist down on the puppet to smash it flat with a suddenness that made the Priestess and Queen gasp. He quickly withdrew his had with a sickened look as the napkin started to squirm, and with a flick of her wrist, Sushulana caused it to fly to her hand. “By the way, do _you_ have any Champions that need to be taught a lesson? Cause I’m feeling the urge to kick somebody’s ass until they squeal like a pig.”

She has taken it too far, but Merrin proved equal to the challenge of rehabilitating her image right then and there. “Yes, I get the hint, I owe you a ship.” He smiled and rapped the table to make certain he had her attention, as well as the rest of us. “Sushulana, you have spent marginally more time on Kyrnos than anyone else here. What is the nature of the difficulties that Melisande faces there, in her quest to make that place into a proper addition to this Kingdom?”

Sushulana blinked at him, and her anger was pushed aside by practical considerations. “The problems she faces are deadly, and many-faceted. The worst of them is the Banker’s Guild, or association, whatever they call it. They have perpetuated the confusion on that island that makes it so ungovernable, generations worth of it. It maintains their position as the real authority there… power without any responsibility for anyone’s well-being but their own. Oh, they are good at generating the appearance of wealth and prosperity, what with their easy credit and fancy papers, but those Bank-creatures end up with all the coin and a hold on the land and anything else of material value is their reach.” Her face was cold and hard, eyes glinting with a deeper anger. What we had seen before was just a momentary flare, this was the real thing.

“Sounds distressing, a system that would do real harm to any country that sort of people could infest." Merrin continued in a cool voice. "How can they be thwarted?”

“What…. you mean, in general?” She looked down at the smashed napkin and thought. Thinking hard, eyes alight and ears twitching, and had an answer in less than a dozen heartbeats. “They collect interest, its what the game is all about, its their fee for loaning money. Its sounds all very well and good, but as time goes by, ALL the money ends up in their hands. Nobody can beat them at that game because you can’t stay in business unless you charge something to cover the risks.” She looked up and smiled at the Queen, who was doing her best to be patient. “Unless you happen to be the Kingdom itself.”

We all looked at each other, a little confused. Sushulana had taken this in a direction that had even Merrin looking a little bemused. “What do you mean by that?”

“Well, the Kingdom collects all the taxes, in goods if it must. It also mints all the coinage, and is charged with the public good, right? Well, if you are the responsible party... I mean, you maintain the government and take risks all the time anyway, what’s one more?”

My concern for Sushulana’s reputation made me wonder if she was going to just keep babbling. “What are you talking about, competing with the banks? _Us_?”

“Well, yes, and you’d win overnight. All you have to do is not charge any interest.” She warmed to the subject, and laid her scheme out in greater detail. “You have the courts and the archivists, and the army. Your risks are pretty minimal when all is said and done. Sure, it concentrates a lot of wealth in your hands, but that also prevents the Crown from becoming the biggest victim of the bankers. Your treasury will _seem_ smaller, but the money will be out there making the economy happen, and you’ll have all these markers to call in if you ever need… you know, any _favors._ You won’t use your power to crush people at take their homes because if you do, that makes the economy stop happening, and everyone looses eventually. Can’t have the heirs, your own children, inheriting an unhappy Kingdom, right?” Sushulana noticed how we were all looking at her. “What?”

Barquiel gave his head a quick shake, and looked at Merrin. “Did you know she was going to do that?”

“I suspected something of the sort. I just wasn’t expecting something so… brilliant.” He looked at her with pride, and I think that this was when Sushulana ceased to look at Merrin as if he was the biggest problem in her life.

I lowered my head until my chin touched my chest, eyes closed. “Our little school-teacher.” I whispered, and held tight to Imriel’s hand.

“Between now and the Midwinter Ball, things are going to be very interesting around here.” Atreus said, sounding as if he was looking forward to all the challenges ahead of us.


	13. 52

52

 

The most annoying thing about the following two months was how I was unable to attend Merrin & Sushulana’s education in the Temples, and I also missed out on many of Sushulana’s escapades in the Court of Night Blooming flowers. The reasons for my absence, _our_ absences, were as inescapable as they were infuriating.

Firstly, of course, there was the role Imriel and I had to play in the governance of the Kingdom. Much of the time, its not exhausting work, and in a typical day a Sovereign can find oneself with a good many hours for one’s own enjoyment. The tiresome part is that you must keep yourself available to your staff. In the middle of a dance, a meal, or even in the darkest hour of the night, information may have to be received and decisions made and messages sent out. When Parliament is in session, a day can seem to be a week, and in those days we were still working out ways for both Houses to work together. Merrin was openly puzzled at why this branch of our Government caused the Royalty any headaches at all, and urged us to use it the way he would himself; as a labor-saving device and a scapegoat. This cost him some of the status he had gained with the Queen, but in her eyes he was still vastly superior company to Sushulana… this in spite of how she was improving her social graces under our tutelage.

There were other reasons for us to be apart from them. While we let it be known that the two of them had Royal patronage, had I or Imriel been present constantly it would have transformed them from merely being a couple of intriguing foreigners into our pets, and the most gossiped-about people in the entire Kingdom. There was a limit to how much good our influence could do them.

My Mother and Merrin also agreed on another point; Sushulana needed a break from our constant presence. We should also get used to seeing less of her, as there was no guarantee that our Gods would accept them both. as the days passed, it did seem that the odds were against them.

The plan had been for them to visit Temples together, and then for Sushulana to visit the Night Court while Merrin aided us with the Unseen Guild, but that plan went to pieces right away. Sushulana would begin and end her tour at Elua’s Temple, but her second stop was to be in the shadow of Kushiel. Things did not go well when it came to be her turn for Physical purification. She went a little wild in the restraints, and it went beyond taunts and profanity, Sushulana had brazenly made suggestions that the Priest and his assistant do things to her that they found shocking…. but that did not stop them from implementing a couple of them. Merrin had to carry Sushulana straight to the Temple of Eisheth, sent on their way with an admonition that she not return. This was not a show of hostility, but whatever she was, Sushulana was not one of Kushiel’s own.

Phedre insisted on being Suhulana’s chaperone in the Temples from then on, as a favor to Merrin.

 

Ti-Phillepe’s funeral had taken place on a suitably dreary morning, and was well attended by a surprising variety of people. It was as elaborate as Phedre dared to make it, a suitable tribute to the last of her Guardians aside from Joscelin himself. At the wake afterwards we found that a handful of the palace staff had been assigned to relieve Phedre’s household of their usual duties that they might take part as well.

This was a kindness, yet one with problems of its own. Phedre and her tightly knit household liked things their own way, and no new staff from the Palace would be able to satisfy them, regardless of how diligence or attentive they were. At a time like this, on such a delicate occasion, there was bound to be friction, unless a special sort of help was at hand. For a mercy, there was. Merrin himself donned the uniform of a major-domo and personally oversaw the staff in his own special way. He kept his mind wide open that day to all the grief and misery, and to the surface thoughts of all who dwelt in the Townhouse. Cory was amazed at how these servants seemed to know how to find everything they needed without pestering her, nor anyone else. Benoit voiced light-hearted concern that his place in the household was being threatened by the slip of a girl out in the chilly drizzle. Sushulana was hustling mounts and carriages about the small yard, exploiting her talent with horses to the utmost. 

Neither Merrin nor Sushulana had attended the funeral, they thought that it would be hypocritical for them to honor a man Merrin had never met and that Sushulana had only seen as the man stomping the air out of her lungs. Instead, they did a small honor to Phedre by preforming domestic rolls in her household, and doing them well. Thanks to Merrin, the Palace staff outdid themselves, and were now rumored to have a 6th sense when it came to fulfilling the needs of House Montreve.

It was there that Merrin took Phedre to one side and told her that he had noticed that she could barely read her own handwriting on a cloudy day. He also told her that there was something he could do about it, if she would allow him to do so.

  
I was with Sushulana in Phedre’s study seeking a quiet moment and looking out the window when the door behind us opened. We turned in time to see Joscelin closing the door, he would remain outside to guarantee privacy. Merrin hesitated when he saw us, and I briefly wondered if our presence had interrupted the strangest assignation that I could have imagined.

“Ah, very well, there should be witnesses, and these will do nicely.” Phedre said over her shoulder to Merrin as she cleared a space on the largest table in the room and started to arrange books there. She explained to us what Merrin wanted to do, and asked Sushulana to keep an eye on her own eyes while he worked. The _Alfar_ was bemused, and keen to understand the process. I helped arrange a series of scrolls and open books at various distances as Phedre settled into a chair. Merrin stood behind her, placed his hands on either side of her head, and closed his own eyes. I had reservations despite Merrin’s certainly and Phedre’s enthusiasm. Sushulana calmed me with a wink, and with her keen curiosity. Here was something new; the Dragon was bending his powers to the cause of rebuilding something that had been lost. I held my tongue as there was more going on here than a restoration of eyesight, miraculous as that may be in itself.

“Shall we begin restoring the faculties of the ‘foremost scholar of her age’ then?” Merrin said gravely.

Phedre shot Sushulana a look that told her what she thought of that title. The _Alfar_ simply smiled in return and knelt at the other end of the table with her chin just inches from the edge of the wood. “Lets do…. _ahem_ , we shall start when you two are ready.”

The next quarter of an hour was boring for me. Merrin told Phedre to read various things, or to look at them as he looked through her eyes. He maintained his poise to the end, fingers barely moving and his voice calm, but I did see sweat on his brow early on. Sushulana kept a careful watch on Phedre, soon becoming bored herself and resting her chin on the table. Phedre was carefully doing as instructed, looking here and there and reading aloud from what little she could properly focus on. It did not seem to be going very well until nearly the end of that quarter hour, when Merrin had Phedre look at the drapes, and then at the view beyond. He opened his eyes, smiling just a little, and had her look back at the table full of texts. Her self control was admirable, she did not rise or shout or do anything to break Merrin’s hold on her. From halfway across the room, I could tell that she could read everything before her. Phedre smiled, shaking lightly as her hands ran over the papers, one tear rolling down her cheek. Merrin tested her, closing his eyes and massaging her temples lightly.

“I have not been able to read such small print from that distance since I was thirty!” She exclaimed, and look directly at Sushulana. Here jaw dropped, seeing the Alfar with crystal clarity for the first time. “Oh, my….”

For her part, Sushulana rose and leaned over the table, staring back at Phedre from just inches away. “Her dart-mark is red and bright as ever, no cosmetic changes that I can see at all.” Phedre blinked, and shook again. She’d not considered the idea that Kushiel’s mark might be affected by the procedure. Still speaking to Merrin while staring at Phedre, Sushulana continued; “Nice work. Hmm, an Ion flush?”

“To start with, yes. The real trick is to restore a greater degree of suppleness to the cell walls without costing them any strength.” I of course had no idea what they were talking about, and I doubt Phedre did either. Her eyes looked the same to me, and when she turned to smile at me, I went to hug her and congratulate her. Before I could, Merrin dropped his hands and took a step back, looking as if he was about to loose his balance, so I went to him instead. My hand went to his back via the reflex one can call helpfulness, and withdrew by reason of another reflex… that of self-preservation, it could be called. Fear is another.

Merrin’s flesh did have a certain amount of flexibility, but under that was something so massive, so dense that it felt as if my own meager strength could not have stopped him from rolling over in his sleep. Would that be enough to crush anyone sleeping next to him?

What were we setting Sushulana up for? We knew so little…

**She knows.**

Ah, of course, my thoughts had shouted out beyond my head, and Merrin had not walled himself off yet. **All that is physical can be overcome. It is what is in her heart that matters, is her’s alone. We can’t-**

*We can’t force it, but you can touch it! You already have.* I sent my thoughts boldly back at him, or simply threw them out in all directions hoping that he would catch them. *I am sorry, of _course_ she knows you, as you know her. Justicar… be gentle, as you were with Phedre. But, perhaps not so exacting?*

He looked amused that I would advise one such as he, but he nodded and smiled. Sushulana came up to him on his other shoulder, and put a hand on him there. She did not flinch, she _did_ know, and she smirked at me. “What’s this now? Will I have to be asking for a little privacy with Imriel in fair exchange-“ She stopped herself when she saw the look that suddenly came over Merrin. “By stars and souls… you’d prefer monogamy, wouldn’t you? How interesting.”

Phedre had gone to the door to pull Joscelin inside while we communicated in our various ways. When I turned to look, her hand were on the sides of his head and she was looking up at him with pained wonderment. Her fingertips traced the lines around his eyes. “When did these start happening?”

Joscelin breathed hard, shaking his head. “Oh, before Kyrnos, I think.” He looked up at Merrin. “How long will this last?”

“It took her 30 years to wear her eyes out in the first place. She should be fine for that long again, longer if she is a little less careless this time around.” Merrin smiled again, either from satisfaction, or perhaps the way Sushulana had put her arm around him. “Joscelin Verreuil, you were the first D’Angeline to speak of Sushulana in terms that were other than hostile. You have my thanks, and I do hope that you will feel free to call on me should you have need to.”

Joscelin saluted the Dragon in his Casseline way. “I intend to be rather harsh with the next person that suggests you are a burden to us.”

Oh yes, there were several that thought so, and not just in the tiny circle that knew the whole truth. While Merrin was helping us deal with the last of the Unseen, Sushulana was running through half his gold in a matter of weeks. The Houses she paid in Gold coin, but for the Temples, she went on shopping trips to find them things that she thought they needed. Eisheth’s Temple, for example, received a light-weight carriage and a team of horses rated as some of the fastest and most enduring in the Province. It was her way of giving the Healers a way to get about quickly, and she even added a tube to one wheel that would make a sound like a whistle when the the carriage was moving at top speed, her concern being that no further injuries be inflicted while racing about to cure hurts that had already been suffered.

I heard that she was observing all the rituals, but that Sushulana had one area where she was curiously reluctant; that of making offerings to the Gods themselves. She has such a literalist streak running through her that she could not place an offering on an altar, a stone ledge, or even the side of the street without thinking of the poor drudge that would have to come and clean up faded flowers or works of art eventually. Merrin also worried about the practicality of it all, and shook his head at the ritual of freeing Doves for Naamah... one form of offering that had delighted Sushulana. He speculated aloud whether it would seem as if they were attempting to buy the favor of Deities… but after driving several Clerics to distraction with their questions, they went along with it in the sprit of “taking it on faith”.

 

The second most annoying thing about those two months was also one of the most entertaining. Merrin and Sushulana had promised to report to us on their progress, usually over a late breakfast. They kept their promise, and were quite candid… regardless of who else happened to be in attendance. It could be maddening to hear about what they had been up to rather than taking part in it, but at other times it was such a relief to know that I would not have to explain my own participation in it. Between Sushulana’s merriment with various adepts and Merrin’s philosophical challenges, the two of them were becoming the talk of the City. I knew this because every other petitioner, Ambassador or Nobleman that crossed my path would ask me about them. With Phedre it was much the same, if not more so as she was escorting them to important encounters at various temples, and was there as well when the both of them visited the place that was considered the origin of Kushiel’s Avatar; Cerreus House.

This was no simple visit, by any standards. Sushulana’s enthusiasm was mirror by her diligence as a student. Phedre had to report how impressed she was with the _Alfar_ ’s dedication the next morning, and she made her report alone. Sushulana had stayed overnight, and had arranged to do so for a 2nd night ahead of time, with Merrin as well! The Comtess admitted that she had made some of her lessons deliberately dull and tedious, to test Sushulana’s devotion to bettering herself. Her student had turned the tables by asking questions that never lacked Sushulana’s flare for insight, and transformed the dreary aspects of elocution and deportment into something far more animated than Phedre had ever seen before. She had left them there late in the evening during an extended dancing lesson that left their touters exhausted… and thus, Merrin and Sushulana were left to dance with each other. Before leaving, Phedre gave in to her curiosity and inquired after the lodgings the pair of them had requested. Separate rooms, again, but in this case a suite connected by a simple doorway.

“What next, should you succeed? Should they come together… have you given a thought to what the future holds for them, and us?” Phedre wondered aloud.

I had no good answer for her. “For my part, I am still surprised, and proud, that Sushulana has avoided any violence. Six weeks now, and not a single duel.” There was little that Imriel, Mother or even Phedre could add once I’d said that aloud.

 

The next morning was a different matter.

Everyone had something to say when Merrin and Sushulana approached the Royal wing of the palace hours after sunup holding each other, and I do mean everyone. Guards, ministers and chambermaids all were aware of the delicacy of their relationship, being D’Angeline we tend to have an instinctive sensitivity about such things. The pair announced a new closeness with arms about each other’s waists, their ready smiles, and the way Sushulana would rest her head on his arm when they were not moving about. They were both smiling and walking in step when they were ushered in to join us as we lingered at the table. On this day Imriel and I were in a parlor that was nothing more than a glassed-in balcony, and my Mother joined us there less than a minute later. It was a nice, intimate little gathering, and all of us had reason to be glad no others were there before it was over with.

As soon as the door closed behind them, I dashed to hug Sushulana. Imriel gave Merrin a hearty hand-shake, and my Prince was wringing his hand when the door opened briefly to admit the one person who could enter any room at any time without being announced, the Queen. Her eyes lit up when she saw the new rumor confirmed by the poise of our guests. She held out her hands to the both of them and said “Congratulations to the both of you! Oh, at long last, things are going well in your lives, yes?”

Merrin bent at the waist and kissed the offered hand. “You know, it is welcomes like this that convince me that Sushulana had the right idea all along.” What he meant, of course, was the way the D’Angeline people greeted the news of their tryst. Gentle, heart-felt approval instead of sly looks and mocking ribaldry, our attitude was making this day a memorable one for him.

Sushulana was in such high spirits that she took her greatest liberty with the Queen to date. She had put both hands into the one my mother held out to her, and once Merrin had finished speaking, she seemed to indulge in a moment of pure imbecility. She shook that hand as some foolish Drover would, and said in a rough & ready voice; “Aw shucks, ma’am, all we did was go round the world on each other’s bodies!” And before anyone could even begin to reproach her, she spun completely around on one heel. Two things made the movement remarkable; one was the fact that she kept her hold Ysandre with at least one hand during the whole spin. The other was that her expression, poise and voice changed utterly by the time she faced the Queen again, less than 2 heartbeats later. She combined a curtsy and bow as she used her right hand to place Ysandre’s knuckles to her forehead. The fingertips Sushulana’s left hand touched the floor as she spoke with solemn joy; “Gracious Queen, thank you for your hospitality and forbearance, without which none of this would have been possible. Gods willing, I look forward to serving you and your great House.”

The Queen accepted her performance with good grace, but she had to ask; “Yes, fine progress you have made, but... you were never really that awful, were you?” She had meant that rhetorically, but the looks on all our faces made her wince. “What, you can’t be serious… _worse_?”

“Only Merrin has seen how dreadful I could be, and isn’t it interesting that all of the people I have to thank for my self-improvement are right here in this room!”

“Not all.” Merrin said, pulling out a chair for the Queen. “Phedre has had a great deal to do with it.”

“I was speaking of motivation, not facilitation. While an excellent teacher, she is not the reason for my willingness to make this effort.” Her walk had a certain tenderness to it, and I could well imagine why. I plucked a pillow from the couch under the windows and slipped it onto the chair Sushulana would take. When she saw that, Sushulana ducked her head with an adorable smile on her face, and winked at me. As we sat down, our heads came so close our cheeks brushed.

“ _Round the world_ , eh?” I asked in a whisper.

Sushulana did not dare to say it aloud, instead her lips formed the words ‘he’s incredible!’ and her smile intensified. She did sit with perfect grace, outwardly, but it was some time before she released her grip on the arms of her chair.

My mother sat between our men, who in turn were seated next to their ladies. Lady, it was now possible, and a little intoxicating, to think of Sushulana that way. We had an enjoyable breakfast for the most part, light conversation that was kept light by the coy reluctance of either Merrin or Sushulana to speak of their encounters with the adepts of the various houses. When asked to tell us what they liked best about our City, they went on and on until my mother exclaimed; “If only Drustan could be here to see this!”

“Why isn’t he?”

We were all shocked to hear that, because it wasn’t Sushulana that blurted that out.

It was Merrin.

“You _know_ why.” My mother spoke looking straight into Merrin’s unfathomable eyes in a tone that had never failed to end a conversation, until now.

“Yes, I do. Force of habit.”

“Stop!” Sushulana slapped her hand to his chest and pleaded. “Why would you even-“

“Because when you care and want to help someone you have to risk their displeasure, from time to time.” Merrin’s eyes never left the Queen, even as he covered Sushulana’s hand with his own.

Ysandre’s eyes were cold, but her tone was unperturbed. “In that case, you may continue, oh wise Dragon.” Merrin’s wisdom was about to be judged, and not only by my mother.

“Very well then. It may have been a necessity at first, but later on routine separation was a more welcome thing. All the pressure on you both, all the attention, this naturally lead to an intense desire on the part of you both to have a perfect relationship, at all levels. Not the appearance of one, but the reality of one. And, incredibly, you have done so. You set such a brilliant example that your heirs have done you one better and established a passionate relationship that has no rancor in it at all.” He turned his gaze to us for a moment. “Someday I would love to know how you have managed that. Call it an extension of my survival instinct.” Sushulana’s lips curled unpleasantly and her fingernails began to dig into his chest. Merrin snapped his attention back to my Mother. “Yes, back to my point here. Being together less than half the year gave you an advantage; you were always _ready_ for him, and he for you. You were fresh, with so many good things to say to each other that the bad things rarely came up. Unlike most couples, you had constant reminders of what it was like to be without each other, and thus have never treated each other casually, never approached the level of familiarity that breeds casual acceptance. Now, however, I do believe that things need to change.”

“Oh, truly?” If my Mother was impressed with the Dragon’s insights, she hid it well. I did my best to follow her example, yet I must admit that Merrin's words rang of a deep truth. “And, pray tell, how would you solve our personal problems? Will you fly us back and forth for the Holidays, fix it so that we can see each other in our dreams, and touch as well?”

Merrin sighed, and simply said; “Next Fall, go with him. Yes, to Alba, and stay for a full year.”

“Impossible! We have Kingdoms to run….” The Queen restrained herself from looking at me.

“You abdicated in the Dauphine’s favor once before, for a month.” Merrin was being delicate now, not reminding her that it wasn’t intended that way as he continued in a carefully modulated voice. Perhaps he did not know that Ysandre had been ready to step down permanently in my favor, on that terrible day. “One year, consider it on-the-throne training. And when you _both_ return, there will probably be a Grandchild on the way or perhaps just born, and your heirs will be more than glad to take a year or so off for themselves.”

Ysandre looked out the window, her eyes far away. She thought for a long moment, considering and discarding replies until she said; “Don’t you think I have dreamed of something like this? We even spoke of it, he and I, years ago…” She looked at me with a sad smile on her face. “It is different, isn’t it, hearing such things from a new perspective? Merrin, I will consider it… will you watch over them?”

“Naturally. Not that you need to worry, you Courcels have become an institution in your own right. No sane person your vicinity is thinking in terms of overthrowing you. And if they do, your Gods willing, I will be here to prevent anyone from even trying.”

“ _We_ will.” Sushulana petted the chest her nails had been gouging a moment before. “And I do wish you would think of them as OUR Gods, or at least try speaking in that way.”

Merrin turned to her. “Ah, yes, and this brings me to another issue that needs to be resolved.”

  
My heart had begun to soar again, but now I checked its flight. I thought his ideas about keeping my parents together was wonderful. However, the way he looked at Sushulana was even more grave than how he had begun with my mother.

“Ah, yes, to be sure… I was hoping for a little more time, but Midwinter is only ten days away, and there will be a handful of social events preceeding it. I need to ask the Casseline about an escort and how to proceed with that… its rather more than a shame that I have been unable to procure a replacement for my Sable cloak now, isn’t it?”

Merrin smiled, but shook his head "Well, now that it appears that we can get through this night without humiliating ourselves , and if you can avoid killing anyone-"

“Serendipitous that I haven’t met anyone that deserves it, yes?“ She fired back while he was still in mid-sentence.

"-and if we can somehow manage to make civilization itself look like it was a _good_ idea, for a change," he gave a hard glare to Sushulana, "we may just be allowed to remain here long enough to do some serious groveling. For now, lets just convince the Gods that we can be good guests. While I am freezing my tail off standing vigil you will make the rounds and-"

Sushulana leaped to her feet, overturning the chair " _WHAT_? Oh _Hell_ no!" And she was in earnest. "YOU are the impressive one, YOU go to the Balls and let me stand the Longest Night with men of honor, we'll both be in our elements and you won't have to worry about me seducing the Royals and starting fights."

I saw the validity of what Merrin was saying right off, and I had to take his side before Sushulana could persuade him otherwise. "Nay, I'm afraid it does not work that way, and once again my dear Sushulana, you are clinging to your comfort level. Think of it as a Sacrifice if you must, the sort that our Gods can appreciate."

"What?” As sailors would say, my opinion stole the wind from her sails. However, it only lasted long enough for Merrin to rise from his own seat and face her fully. Just that quickly, Sushulana began to argue again. “No no no, its what we are _good_ at, he and me. This is too important-“

Merrin thundered; "Damn right it is!" he picked her up by the shoulders and put her up against the wall, in a more gentle way than it sounds. "I am going to offer apologies to these Gods you have set such store in, and made _me_ believe in, somehow. Yes darling, you were right all along, I admit that! _You_ are going to have some FUN for once in your life that does not involve mayhem! YOU are going to spend 18 hours out from under my big heavy wing and enjoy yourself among people who think that witty comments are the deadliest form of strife. I don't care how many of those hours you spend on your back or who with, and I don't care if you think of me once the whole time! For my sake and yours I beg you to forget your foibles and let these people show you a good way to live!"

Sushulana answered him quickly and breathlessly; "Merri I love you to tears but if you don't put me down right now I really will start bawling!"

"It's going to be all right, my-"

"No I mean it there is something sharp on the wall digging into the small of my back and-"

Merrin immediately pulled her away from the wall set her down on her feet. “Sorry.”

“Oh, I’m fine.” She didn’t rub her back, just gave herself a quick shake, and not breaking eye contact with Merrin. Sushulana was looking up at him with something akin to awe. “Wow… that was …. _wow_. When you finally come around to loving somebody, you don’t go halfway, do you?

“As if you would have it otherwise. First in your heart, wasn’t that what you said?” Merrin suddenly dropped his hands and glanced back at us, and Sushulana gritted her teeth. Given the beauty of the moment, she would not have given our presence a second thought, but Merrin knew better. They had risen from their chairs before the Queen even had a chance to, a rather serious breach of etiquette, and one they were painfully aware of after two days at Cereus House.

Ysandre rose before they had a chance to duck back into their seats, and said with a smile; “Come, its time I took a personal role in your educations. Yes, come with me now, there is much to be done in a short time, and you will find none better than I at expediting such matters in this City of ours.” Ysandre hooked elbows with them both and swept them from the room. Over her shoulder, she said to us; “Daughter, Son, see to Court today, will you? I may be rather busy.” And off they went, first to the Temple of Cassiel Where Merrin lingered for most of day, and thence to a certain dress maker for a very special job.

We learned of all that later. When they had left us, I felt sick to my stomach for a moment, and too dizzy to rush to the window. Much as I loved her myself, I had never seriously thought of this. Good Gods, it had never entered my head, I had been thinking the same way that Sushulana had been, but _Merrin_ would be standing the vigil. “Its really going to happen, Sushulana is going to be at OUR Ball…. oh, Elua help us!”

“My love, I’m afraid _he_ has enough of a nightmare to deal with, as a Dragon will attempt to pay him homage. That wild Elf is our’s to deal with.”


	14. 53

53

 

 

If they had been worthy of gossip before, their excursion with the Queen had made Merrin and Sushulana the most intense subject of speculation in the City of Elua since I had wed Imriel more than half a year past. An augery for Merrin and an appointment with Favrielle in the immediate presence of Queen Ysandre were both resolved in ways that were kept secret. “Oh to have been a fly on that wall”, Imriel later said of what must have occurred at that dressmaker’s establishment, but when we saw the results we knew that it had been worth whatever trouble it had caused. Once it became known that Sushulana would be our guest at the Ball, and she would be coming alone, every man in the city was asking about her. We in the palace could shield ourselves from all the inquiries, and so it was that Phedre and Joscelin came to join us a week prior to midwinter. Their cozy little home had been besieged by the curious, and Sushulana had to be restrained by Merrin himself to prevent her from going there to break the siege by "any means necessary".

Such was the nature of our personal Guest for the Royal Midwinter Ball.

She was so wroth that Merrin begged for, and at last gained permission, for Sushulana to train with the Royal Guard for a day… provided she limit herself to the Bow and perhaps a Dagger. The formerly-mad Elf spent the day previous to that selecting and re-training a horse, and so we all felt compelled to observe at least part of her day with the Soldiers, to see why she had taken such pains. In the lists, her short bow gave a very modest performance next to our professional archers with their longer bows and arrows carefully selected for each range. She then mounted her obedient and sensitive Palfrey and gave a demonstration of mounted archery such has had never been seen in Terre D’Ange. She sent arrows out swiftly from every angle as she guided her borrowed horse in tight circles or at a full gallop. The range was shorter than at the lists, but she used maneuvers that would have made it difficult to target her with any weapon. She scrambled about on her mount, passing in front of the horse’s chest and once under the startled animal’s belly, and either by dint of her grip on the various parts of the harness or with a little magical help, it was still a good showing. Sushulana finished up by leaping from her saddle while the Horse was moving at a trot and rolled as a tumbler might, putting her last 2 arrows through the eyes of a mannequin that was 15 paces away from her kneeling position.

What made this interesting was that she wasn’t simply showing off. After a demonstration lasting less than a quarter of an hour, Sushulana spent the rest of the morning trying to teach a handful of volunteers how to do what she had just done. Naturally, Imriel had to be one of them. Naturally, he was the quickest learner and emerged as a “passable” horse archer with “certain potential” by the noon hour… to quote his instructor. Imriel had mastered the art of standing in the stirrups while making the shot and then hugging the barrel of the horse with his legs to guide it to the next maneuver, but he was the worst student of the lot when it came to sending an arrow back over the horse’s rump without accidentally giving the wrong command to the horse with his thighs at the same time.

I was asked to join in the fun, and was not pressed when I firmly refused. A Princess may ride along on a hunt, but taking part in a kill has become less and less appealing to me. It was still fascinating to watch, after Sushulana’s horse lost its wind, she rode behind the Soldier she was training, tireless and always leaning out of the way at the right time, even if that meant she had to lay flat on the horse’s rump. By the time she was done, we had five Soldiers who would be able to practice what they had learned  towards real proficiency, and pass what they knew to others. Sushulana attempted to make a gift of her Bow to Imriel, who politely refused, and introduced her to a group of officers that wanted to make her acquaintance. We saw little of her for the rest of that day and evening, as the diminutive Field Marshal discussed military matters with them and introduced them to the concept of war-games… a cerebral sort of martial artistry that involved a sand table, painted blocks of wood and the throwing of dice.

This, too, was the nature of our guest.

While that had been going on, Merrin was putting his good standing with Joscelin to use. As he would be standing a most important vigil, the Dragon needed the advice of the Casseline who had an unmatched record when it came to the longest night. Merrin also made his final report to us on the Unseen Guild, henceforth to be known as Divinity’s Ears. He had found it necessary to kill two of them imedialty on sensing their thoughts, and fortunately neither of them had been on Sicilia. That island had been the very first place he had visited, armed with an eloquent letter from Phedre, and both Barron and his Carthaginian Daughter-in-Law had gladly agreed to remove themselves from the world of intrigue. As for the rest, we were assured that all went well and was in the hands of the Church now. For our edification, Atreus had arranged to meet with us at his Temple the day before Midwinter.

 

  ***

 

I will not relate here any of the details of what the good Atreus told us about closing the books on the Unseen Guild/Divinity’s Ears, nor even a full list of all who were there for the meeting. Not only was this a condition of the meeting itself, it was at this point where the Crown washed it’s hands of the affair. Should you wish to know more of this, and how it affects your era, you must state your case to the Church itself. I believe you will have to make it a good case, and is possible that the organization itself will have passed into history by the time you read this.

What I can say is that Sushulana was not present at the meeting, yet she was in the Temple. She was reciting her vows of love and adherence to Elua and all his teachings to a trio Priests she had never met before, and passed their verbal examination of her faith with banners flying, as soldiers would say. While our meeting dragged on, she prepared a surprise for us in the yard where Elua’s statue stood tall and serene. I thought I’d had an inkling of what she had in mind, as she had brought my best cosmetician and several minstrels with her. Honestly, I have no idea what gave me the idea that I could predict what that woman was about with any accuracy.

When we ended the meeting at last, Atreus and Emilienne escorted us out to a garden sleeping through winter's barren days. Our party included Imriel, my Mother, Phedre, Barquiel and of course Merrin. The first thing we noticed was that dozens of Priests, acolytes and other folk were present, including Joscelin. Phedre’s Perfect Companion beckoned, not to her, but to Merrin for him to join him near the foot of the statue. Once he had, half a dozen of Elua’s most faithful stepped away from a corner of the yard, and revealed Sushulana standing and bent double at the waist, arms wrapped around her calves.

“Since you will not be at the Ball, she wanted you to see what she will be wearing, and the dance she is asking permission to do there.” Joscelin announced to Merrin, and to the rest of us. When Merrin nodded, a female minstrel began to sing with a resonant moaning sound. She was accompanied by a flutist, a drummer a harpist who all played in an artfully measured and minimalist way.

Sushulana stood, arms up over here head, and a gasp went up from the Royal party that I contributed to in no small way. My right hand on my heart, my left on Imriel’s shoulder, we beheld the _Alfar_ as she truly was for the first time in weeks… and yet in disguise at the same time.

She was masquerading as an Elf, of all things.

Sushulana had started with a body-wash that had given her skin a very subtle tilt towards orange, so slight that I had not noticed it on her hands that morning. Her dress was a Royal blue, our blue. The lower part was a long and clinging skirt that left little to the imagination, and the upper part was a wrap that protected her breasts while leaving her shoulders, arms and midriff bare. Her hair was swept up and back to emphasize her ears, and held in place by faded gold pins and chains. The sandals were the same golden color, as were the bangles on each arm. She worn a diaphanous cloak thrown wide open, white and even more sheer than what we had worn on Cytheria. The overall effect was to suggest the colors of the sky at sunrise, yet the crowning touch was how she had disguised herself.

Her face and ears had not been touched by the wash, and retained its normal hue. They had been lined, faintly, to suggest the grain of natural wood, and the same color was used to outline the face itself. This was not all; her ears were festooned with gold decorations hung from little clamps… she had never suffered her ears to be pierced… and there were a few clamps that were artful enough to be decoration in themselves. The very tips of her ears each had rings of decreasing size around them. Sushulana’s face was also decorated, with a myriad of gold leaf stampings. None of them were larger than a man’s thumbprint, and no two were exactly alike. She called the patterns fractals, I don’t know how to describe them exactly, and so I managed to have a few of them preserved. You can find them in the back cover of this book. Lastly, there was a faint outline of kohl around her eyes, in her inner ears and around the supposed limits of the “mask”.

It worked very well, it _was_ working right before our eyes. The people gathered round us seemed perplexed by our reaction, how we were momentarily taken aback but what we saw there. Surely, it was naught but a fine jest. After all, who in their right mind goes the the Midwinter Ball as what they truly are?

The world’s worst liar was presenting the truth as a useful fiction.

The dance she did was a marvel in itself. She began slowly, calmly, in an understated way that matched the music. The rhythm built on itself, as did her movements and gestures, a mutual cannon that built upon itself with repetition. If Sushulana did not match the ethereal grace of the Elves of legend, she more than made up for it with her flexibility, and her sensuality. The soulful expressiveness of her eyes was directed at Merrin at first, playfully inviting. Then she seemed focused on Elua’s image, full of awe and an awareness of her smallness in the great scheme of things. The moment itself humbled her deeply, and it would have been forgivable if her attention had remained fixed on the God. However, it did not, well before the last pirouette, the last complex series of hand & arm gestures or the last kick that left her shin touching her forehead, she had refocused on Merrin. Awe was still there, and now desire as well. Her body undulated in ways that would have offended people in other lands, but this was not any of those places. Every ripple of her body was saying that which need never be said aloud in Terre D’Ange;

This, too, is sacred.

She finished standing tall before Merrin and Elua's statue, hands linked high overhead and eyes closed as she breathed hard through her nose. There was silence for a long moment. One and all, we seemed to have forgotten how to applaud. Merrin himself started forward as if he was about to take Sushulana in his arms, yet he stopped short. I found this terribly disappointing, surely at some point even that Dragon must set aside his precious dignity!

Merrin glanced at the Minstrels, and the harpist & drummer’s eyes filled with sudden awareness. The harpists fingernails stroked every string on his instrument through chords that were somehow ascending and descending at the same time, and Merrin sang a line of lyrics in a language that made his voice sound marvelous. I did not understand the words, nor did anyone else present. Sushulana’s eyes flashed open, and for a moment, she appeared as lost as the rest of us. The harpist repeated his opening, as did Merrin, and the Elf stepped back, amazement replacing the lost look in her eyes. After one more prompting, she sang back to him, and the duet began.

The language was their own, from their lost homeland. They danced around each other, only it wasn’t so much of a dance as it was a stroll with ponderous and hesitant steps. His voice soaring and imploring, her’s at first was cold and dismissive in a way that I had not heard since Cytheria. She gave me a chill doing that, but with every verse Merrin gained strength, and she slowly turned towards him.

For three complex sets of verse and three choruses, it went on like that, until what began as an impromptu entertainment for us turned into something rather more than that. Sushulana broke from her performance while Merrin was in mid-verse, took three running steps and launched herself at him. The impact knocked him back a step, and forced him down to his knees as he struggled to remain upright, with his love clinging to him like a monkey wrapped around a tree. Briefly, I wondered at how she might have bruised herself.

The beauty of the moment was such that I had to approach them more closely, even while Atreus dismissed his people and had Emilienne see to the dazed Minstrels. Imriel was right by my side, and we exchanged knowing looks. The new politeness between them and their physical dalliances had merely been steps, albeit important ones, to this moment. Sushulana had finally admitted how important Merrin had become to her, and had done so with an outpouring of affection that had become mutual in Elua’s very shadow. However, the Dragon remained aware of his surroundings, and our presence. He broke the hug by lifting Sushulana up and away from his body, and I could see how his effortless handling of her body thrilled her. However, she was also disappointed that the moment was ending so soon.

“My love, save your songs for me alone.” Merrin admonished her gently. “I’m fairly certain that everyone saw your lips moving.”

“Oh… shit!” Sushulana glanced around, to see my mother and Barquiel nodding. They were being benign about it, but I did not have to be a mentalist as Merrin was to sense their thoughts, and Phedre was right alongside them. I felt a fury take hold of me that taught me a little of what it was like to have a heart like Sushulana.

“Oh for pity’s sake, can’t you let them have their moment!” I stood with my back to our guests and faced all three of them. “Don’t you see what’s happening here? Stop thinking of them as such a threat to whatever it is you are worried about… Uncle Barquiel, I suppose I must expect that from you, but can’t you let them breath for a moment? Gods, how long are we going to demand they live a lie, HER especially? If I were Sushulana I wouldn’t put up with-“

A firm hand laid itself on my shoulder, out of the corner of my eye I noted that it was Imriel. Merrin and Sushulana had headed off, to the stand supporting Elua’s statue. It was now Joscelin who stood between us and them. Imriel leaned in and whispered; “Darling, I’m afraid your house has a door now, and its wide open.”

I didn’t laugh, and I doubt that I even smiled, but Imriel did know exactly the right thing to say. The scowl left my face and my heart, and hope took it’s place as Imriel spoke to our seniors. “Yes, her lips did indeed move, now that I think about it. Rather a lovely sight, wasn’t it? The truth _will_ come out, should they stay. As my love said, and Sushulana’s very nature makes that inevitable. What better way than a gradual revelation, beginning with hints given during the longest set of revels in our calendar? In all fairness, her mask was perfect, until she was invited to sing by her mate.”

Imriel glanced over at them, as did we all. Sushulana was seated on the stand where Merrin had placed her. She leaned towards him with a hand on his shoulder, her forehead nearly touching his in a moment of bright intimacy. A smile came to my face as I thought of a pair of Swans, necks arching to meet, and for the 100th time I wished that my sister Alais could have been here this winter. As Swans in the wild might, the two of them noticed our attention on them immediately. They favored us with a smile and a nod, and straightened a bit as they conversed. Their poise became unmistakably similar to parents discussing what to do about unruly children.

“Call me what you will, but I am not greatly reassured.” Barquiel grumbled and turned away.

Atreus had been ready to say something conciliatory, but instead he raised his hand and looked to Joscelin with some alarm. Sushulana had hopped down from the stand and had turned away from us as well, walking away with Merrin around the corner of the massive stone block. Parking her backside where she had was treading close to impiety, and what they might get up to out of sight was worrisome. Joscelin turned and trotted after them, and just heartbeats later emerged alone from the other side of the stone, alone. He looked surprised to see only us there, for just a moment. “Oh no, they didn’t just…”

“I’m afraid they did.” Imriel sighed. “Giving them a break from our scrutiny can’t be such a bad thing, agreed?”

“Yes!” Phedre agreed. “I was wondering when they would tire of such a public life, and of us. They will be back, I’m sure of it, if for no other reason than to see this through…. to hear the verdict.”

I felt my nose wrinkle as I looked up at Elua’s image. “Yes, a judgement to be rendered. I'm very glad that I am not one of the Gods.”

 

  ***

 

An hour later a paper Owl landed on my shoulder and unfolded itself. Sushulana thus informed me that she and Merrin were spending the night in a country Inn overlooking the new border with Euskerria. This was not exactly as far as they could go from the city and still be in Terre D’Ange, but the implication was clear in my mind. They would be back the next day by noon, she assured me, and we found her in her quarters at that time, alone in her bed and waking slowly.

“Still barely awake? Its only 4 hours till sunset.” Imriel dismissed the maid that had tried to follow us in and tugged in Sushulana’s foot where it protruded from under the covers. “Where is Merrin?”

“Hmm?” She stirred languidly, moving and smiling as would any woman that was well-sated. “Oh, Merri is preparing himself for tonight… somewhere.”

“And where is your dress, your things?” All I could see near the bed were the remains of her sandals.

“Ah, mmm… the spare is in the closet. Good thing I had one of those, you never know…” her voice faded into a yawn as she sat up, letting the cover slide away. Wherever the original dress was, she wasn’t wearing it.

“Spare? Favrielle made you two, on such short notice?”

“Nah. Bypassed her when she got uppity about the details. I jumped at the first hint your mother … do excuse me…. her Royal Highness made regarding the notion of finding anther dressmaker. Seeings as how the dress is a minor and uncomplicated part of the greater whole, it went smoothly. There are other dressmakers in this grand old city, you know, rather good ones.” She bounced from the bed and went to the stand where Rose-scented water awaited her next to a pile of fresh towels. “I could get used to this.”

When she was done splashing herself and toweling off, the only trace remaining of the look she had the day before was the Orange cast to her skin. “You know, Queen Ysandre can be a lovely person when given a chance. She gave me approval to preform the dance at the ball tonight, in the 4th hour before midnight or so. Gives me a chance to arrive fashionably late without upstaging anyone… heh, and neatly side-steps the need to announce me formally.”

“You don’t want to be taken for a performer!”

“Your Mother said the same thing, but with all the people that have been asking after me I don’t see much chance of that happening.” There was a discreet knock at the door. “Ah! Something to eat, wonderful! I’m famished…. no, sit and relax please! I’ll get it, and-“

“Sushulana, no! Get back by the bed.” I said sternly.

“Why?”

“Your naked.”

“Oh, right!”

I have heard of geniuses that can be so absent minded that they have trouble dressing themselves when pondering a problem, but I had never met anyone that would forget to dress at all when they had naught to worry about but a party. Imriel smirked as he went to the door, and I shooed Sushulana back out if sight, asking “Need I wonder what happened to the original dress, and all that went with it?”

“I still have the bangles and most of the ear & face-dressings. As for the rest…” she made a face and looked out the window. “He’s so amazing. All that strength and passion, and still he treats me like I’m so delicate. I hope he’s not afraid of hurting me, that would make things a bit…. awkward. I’m no Spring Rose, even when he had his way with me in his natural form he was-“

“He what?!” I took an involuntary step back from her.

“Form, not size! I’m not _that_ elastic, Sid.” She nearly giggled at my reaction, and then sighed as she remembered. “Even then, he held so much back, so careful, meticulous… ah, but so detailed with his attentions!” Her body rippled as she remembered, blazing with renewed arousal. I felt a touch of it myself, watching her nipples twitch. If she could so casually accept Merrin physically, just how many emotional barriers had our culture helped them overcome in their approach to that point?

Imriel returned with a tray that held barely enough for an appetite as small as the Sushulana’s, fasting before a Ball that involved much feasting was part of our routine. She finished off the light porridge and cinnamon sticks in a trice and then wrapped a towel around herself. Imriel asked; “Will you need more than one servant to help you with your… costume?”

“Thank you, kind sir, but I won’t be wanting any help at all. I tend to be very particular, independent if you will allow, and I am sure they have better things to do on an occasion such as this.” She was practicing her manners, sitting primly at the table before she asked permission to wash her hair. “Unless it is pressing business of another sort that brings your Highnesses to my humble boudoir?”

Imriel smiled again and held up his hands. “Go right ahead, fair Lady. We have no more pressing business than you yourself.”

Sushulana rose and gave us both a curtsy that was much improved over her earlier attempts. She then went to the table where the bowl of water was, faced away from it, and bent backwards over it. She took care of her own hair with little besides a comb and some powdered soap, and made an efficient job of it. I found myself wishing to offer my assistance, but this was the Palace, not her ship, and my pre-ball gown of green felt would have shown any water damage all too clearly.

How far I had come, only to end up right back where I had started.

“Are you sure there is nothing going on that I should know about?” She called over to us, her Lady-like airs were shelved while she preformed her chores on herself.

Imriel and I exchanged glances. It was my turn to smile as I called back. “This may be the last time you spend the night in this particular room. Barquiel L’Envers has had his apartments cleared out, for your benefit. The Duc is retiring to his home estates tomorrow, and this time, it is going to be permanent. The fact is, this was merely a visit, one prolonged by certain events.”

Sushulana’s hands froze, and she whispered; “For my use…. oh! Merrin, he’s made quite the impression here, hasn’t he?”

“Well, yes, but-“

“Oh, I don’t hold it against him. I was counting on him, to tell it true. But, its a little disconcerting, knowing that the majority of the people who hold me in higher regard than they do Merrin are right here in this room. Oh… you piss-ant!” Her towel was slipping before she was done, she snatched at it with one soapy hand as it fell away, and put one corner of it between her teeth as she bent farther back to finish her hair.

We exchanged looks again, and Imriel wanted to give her another bit of news, one we had been saving for later. I nodded, and he said; “I don’t know if you have heard this, but we are planning to build a University here.”

She nodded as she rinsed her hair out. “Rumors.” She vocalized with difficulty around the towel in her mouth.

“True ones. I’m sorry we did not bring this up sooner, our lives have been rather busy of late, but we are making plans along those lines. It will cover many subjects, but the primary focus will be on what we called Magic here. Sushulana, would you like to head up this staff… once we start to get organized?”

Sushulana nearly bit the corner out of the towel. She carefully stood up and pulled the towel over her head and wrapped it around her hair. “Me?”

“Can you think of anyone better qualified, in this world?”

She trembled, smiling and with a tear in her eye, and then rushed to Him, thanking him with a hug for a dream come true. Then it was my turn. And then, it was inevitable that we share our mutual joy in more intimate ways. We were left wishing that we had more time, but the greatest night of the year in the City of Elua beckoned. All of us had preparations to make, and I was glad that I did not have to appear in what soon became a very rumpled felt dress that evening.

   ***

After some thought, I must admit that there was rather more to it than just that.

  
We did all we could for each other in two hours, no more. The knocking had begun and it would only be a matter of minutes before the preparation for our duties could not be held back by my orders or Imriel’s bellows. _Availably_ , that damn word again, defining the life of those responsible for a Kingdom. Outside, many of people fretted, and as soon as my Mother became one of them our time would be interrupted in rude and memorable way.

ah, but during those two yours ... I will always remember when Imriel lay in his back with Sushulana’ impudent ass impaled on his phalus, his hands gripping her buttocks firmly with his fingers kneeding her deeply. She was facing away from him with her legs splayed outwards, arching her back, and had to use her arms to hold herself up in a much more provocative mirror of the pose she had held while washing her hair. Thus, for as long as Imriel could hold her in place, her body was my playground. I played her well, using fingers and mouth and even my hair, putting into practice much of what I had learned from her on that far-away sea, in a pillow-pit that would see no more love-making. I kissed, caressed and raised goose-bumps on every inch of her skin, tasted her again and made her sing to the heavens by remembering what I knew of her breasts. When Sushulana looked at me, it was with dazzled eyes full of love, lust and encouragement to go further, but more often her head had fallen back as she panted, climaxed and looked upside-down at Imriel. Still the talkative one, she would tell him what I was doing to her, and how she adored it all, the two of us, and this state of being.

And there was more, much more, all three of us were in dire need of yet another bath long before the end. When the Commander of my personal Guard knocked, Sushulana lazily cast a spell that made the door vibrate, and speak in her own voice. “We hear you. Give us a quarter hour, or I will force you to taste what you had for lunch yesterday.”

By then, she and I lay side by side, with Imriel draped over us both in a cozy mutual hug. “Murphh, thank you,” Imriel said in a muffled voice, face buried in the pillows between our heads, “I do believe we will get that quarter of an hour undisturbed.”

“Would that there was more.” Sushulana shifted, and I felt her wince, and then giggle. “Between you two today and Merrin last night, I certainly won’t be in any shape to do anything naughty tonight!”

“You could use a masseuse then, if you are going to dance at all.”

“Send two, Sidonie dear. Ah, but there are two right here, no?”

“Indeed there are.” Imriel levered himself up to a kneeling position and laid his hands on her. However, he was tickling her instead, and I joined in immediately. Her giggles turned to cackles as we tormented her for a moment. Sushulana ended up half-sitting with teary eyes with her back to the headboard, begging us to stop and then pouting when we did. Suddenly, she began to cry in earnest, holding her hands out to us.

"Yea fucking GODS, I owe you both so much! I’m alive, still, an now with so much hope! How can I ever…” We hugged her and covered her face with kisses until she calmed enough to continue speaking. “Oh no, don’t you start too! You cried as much as I did those three days….mmmhh… but I think that’ how you got my attention. You pulled me back from the brink... you understood, you f _elt_ it with me. Even if it never happened to you, you felt so much, you should _never_ know-“ She sat bolt upright, breaking the hug with a startling expression on her face. “You won’t! No, no grief like that for you, not if I can help it, _and I can_!”

She wormed free of our bodies and sliped feet-first to the edge of the bed, ignoring our questions and dashing to a half-empty bottle of wine on the dinning table. She leaped back into the bed, and the light in her eyes made me think of how I had felt back at the Fortress during my moment of clarity.

“Imri!” she said to him, the only time I can recall that she ever used that form of his name when he was not inside her. “Repeat after me; _Nar-Hamel_. It means ‘I accept’.”

Imriel, bless him, did not hesitate to do so, watching Sushulana take a drink from the bottle and pass it to me. “ _Nar-Rizzen_ ” She said around a mouthful of wine, and kissed him open-mouthed. He smiled into the kiss as she squirted enough of the wine from her own mouth into his for him to take a tiny swallow. Only when his hair stood on end, and her’s rose in waves, did I become concerned. Sushulana’s bare body began to glow with a silvery light, and a tiny bit of that light passed into Imriel. I could see it, this despite the fact that the light was undeniably _within_ him. This spark broke apart into tiny pinpricks that raced out to various parts of him before fading away, too dim for my mundane eyes to see. Imriel rose, open-mouthed and a wordless howl coming from him, standing on the bed as if he’d been hoisted up by his hair. My concern turned to alarm and I stood up with him… and I saw that he never looked more magnificent. He felt that way as well, I could see that, and we were both surprised to see that his phalus had risen as well, despite being emptied three times in the last two hours.

“I… feel…. incredible!” he said, and later repented the inadequacy of his words. Indeed he did, my hands were tingling when I reached out to steady him. We looked down at Sushulana, sprawled on the bed, looking dazed and exhausted, as anyone should after the romp we had just had. As I recalled from L’Indiscreet, she should have been energized by what had passed, if not for what she had just done.

She looked up at us, panting more weakly than Imriel was, and gave us a wink and a lopsided grin. Her voice sounded a little hollow as she said; “It worked then, good….. whew!…. I only get to do that once in a century or so.”

“Do what?!” I demanded, perhaps sounding a little harsher than was my desire.

“Ten years, that should even things up.” She said, wheezing and letting her eyes roll over Imriel. “Do the math, Alba and Vralia aged him about five years. He’s two years older than you, Sid, and men fall about 3 years short of women’s lifetimes, even here… ahhhm… yeah, that’s ‘bout right.” She propped herself up on her elbows, and then fell back again, causing us to crouch by her side and help her up. She felt as she normally did, and Imriel no longer felt strange at all. Her head fell to one side and she nuzzled my shoulder. “Even up now, no lonely years for you, Angelic one.”

“You… _gave_ me ten years, of life? In the name of the Gods, how?!”

“Mine to give.” She yawned.

“YOURS!” we both barked at the same time, and looked at each other. Glorious beyond words was this gift. In a dark corner of my heart, there had been this dread of living without Imriel, and the horrid knowledge that in the twilight of my life, it was likely to happen. Banished now, a misery that I had never allowed myself to dwell on, and from Imri as well.

The perfect gift, enhancing our lives past all reckoning… and what were we thinking in that moment?

“Merrin….” I breathed out slowly”

“… will _not_ be pleased.” Imriel finished for me.

“Oh pish-tosh!” Sushulana waved a weak hand, her strength slowly returning. “I have at least as many more years to live as I already have put behind me, maybe more. Take-“  
She was interrupted by knocking that did not pause.

“ _Naamah’s tits_!” Imriel bellowed furiously and vaulted from the bed, ran to the door to throw it wide open. In the most imperious voice I’d yet heard him use, he ordered; “Send for the best pair of masseuses in the Palace, immediately. After that the lady will need a hairdresser and a servant to help her dress. Now go and make sure all in in readiness, we are leaving for our apartment momentarily. Get moving!” He slammed the door in the faces outside without further ado, and turned to face our laughter. “What, too harsh?”

Sushulana beat me to it by half a heartbeat, and I am glad of it.

“Yer’ naked.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a special chapter for me, all that now remains is the final chapter at the Ball and its aftermath in the Epilogue. 
> 
> The song Merrin & Sushulana shared is based off Avenged Sevenfold's "so far away", with minor alterations to the lyrics that I will post here as soon as I can figure out how to smoothly indicate which words were sung by who, within the limitations of this text situation.
> 
> Lets try this- Caps for Merin, regular for Sushulana. She is cold and distant at the start
> 
>  
> 
> NEVER FEARED FOR ANYTHING  
> Never shamed but never free  
> A LIFE TO HEAL A BROKEN HEART WITH ALL THAT IT COULD  
> Lived a life so endlessly  
> SAW BEYOND WHAT OTHERS SEE  
> I TRIED TO HEAL YOUR BROKEN HEART WITH ALL THAT I COULD
> 
> WILL YOU STAY?  
> Will you stay away forever?
> 
> How do I live without the ones I love?!  
> TIME STILL TURNS THE PAGES OF YOUR BOOK it's burned  
> Place and time always on my mind  
> I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY BUT YOUR SO FAR AWAY
> 
> PLANS OF WHAT OUR FUTURES HOLD  
> Foolish lies of growing old  
> IT SEEMS WE'RE SO INVINCABLE  
> The truth is so cold
> 
> A final song, a last request  
> A perfect chapter laid to rest  
> NOW AND THEN I TRY TO FIND A PLACE IN MY MIND  
> WHERE YOU CAN STAY  
> You can stay away forever
> 
> How do I live without the ones I love?  
> Time still turns the pages of A book it's burned  
> PLACE AND TIME ALWAYS ON MY MIND  
> I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY BUT YOUR SO FR AWAY
> 
> (her voice gains strength but is still combative)
> 
> SLEEP TIGHT, I'm not afraid  
> THE ONES THAT WE LOVED ARE SAD FOR US  
> Lay away a place for me  
> Cause as soon as I'm done I'll be on my way  
> TO MOURN ETERNALLY?
> 
> (she begins to think again)
> 
> HOW DO I LIVE WITHOUT THE ONE I LOVE?  
> Time still turns the pages of the book it's burned  
> Place and time always on my mind  
> AND THE LIGHT YOU LEFT REMAINS BUT ITS SO HARD TO SEE  
> WHEN I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY BUT YOU'RE SO FAR AWAY
> 
> I love you  
> YOU WERE READY?  
> The pain was strong yet urges rise  
> BUT I'LL SEE YOU , I'm here for you  
> YOUR PAIN IS GONE, your hands untied
> 
> SO FAR AWAY - (and this is where she tackles him)


	15. 54

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just one chapter to go now, as I will combine the epilogue with the last chapter when I post for the last time.
> 
> Using the Midwinter ball for the climax setting got out of hand, so much to play with there that this chapter is double the size I anticipated. I just finished it last night... Elua wiling, the last chapter will be here one week from now.
> 
> Whew!

54

 

 

My Mother was not amused by any of it, least of all by the fact that Sushulana’s dance would have to be set back to the 3rd hour before midnight. There had already been some friction between us, Imriel had wanted to go as a Jebean warrior and had to be convinced by the combined forces of the Queen and the Duc that it was still too soon after Carthage for him to go about with a blackfaced mask and holding a spear. He had instead donned the refurbished garb he had been given in the Chowat, with a few enhancements. The wool had been bleached a dazzling white without damaging the embroidery, and brushed to an attractive sheen by experts in their field in our Palace. He donned a blond wig and beard trimmed in the style of the Chowatti as well, which hid so much of his face that no mask was necessary. We had no Chowat weapons or other accouterments, so a gnarled staff was found that was a good imitation of the one Xoltan had carried, this despite the fact that it had come from a tree in Eisande within sight of the Southern Sea instead of the primordial forests of those distant mountains. It all worked very well for him, and was one of the most original costumes at the Ball as few people in the City of Elua had ever seen a Chowatti in their lives.

I, of course, was the Sun Princess. We all have our roles to play.

The pageantry and beauty of this Ball has been described often enough, by Phedre and Imriel both, and yet there is something I can add to their eloquent words. This year was more festive and lively than the previous one, and the lavish tribute Carthage had used to cloak their evils had been used by us to revive the economy to good effect. Our seniors commented that it appeared that we were returning to the lavish and sumptuous sort of affairs that had not been seen since before we scions were born. Phedre was an exception to that, if I read her expression correctly. While she said nothing directly, here eyes told me ‘ _not quite, but you’ll get the hang of it_ ’.

The centerpiece was something that even one such as she could not help stopping to stare at. Many people wondered at it, and for just four people at the party it was something rather more significant than an object of curiosity. It was my monument to our shared secrets.

In L’Agnace we make a wine from crisp, tiny grapes that are mixed with water from a spring that has a special effervescence. It is called Champagne and must be kept in carefully sealed bottles or casks lest it loose its particular sparkle. I had commissioned a unique siphon for the largest cask that could be procured, one made of dozens of glass tubes so narrow that they would only allow a few of the bubbles associated with Champagne to pass at a time. The tubes twisted about each other in a rainbow-like arc as tall as a man, and met at the end of the arc in a glass bulb from which the liquid would be drawn for serving. It was a very complex bit of the glassblower’s art, and its completion had been a object of some anxiety on my part as the artisans reported many problems, solving them at the last hour to give us something new and wonderful. I had colored lamps arranged about it when it had arrived early that morning, and spent the better part of that morning arranging them so that various part of the structure would appear in different colors. To all but a very exclusive little group, it would appear to be a living Rainbow, symbolizing the end of decades of turmoil in Terre d’Ange.

For myself, Imriel, Phedre and Sushulana, it was something very different.  
When Sushulana had used her magic to transport us from Illyria to the Palace, she has asked us not to look to closely while it had been happening. She knew we could not help keeping our eyes open, the best we could manage was to lower our eyelids and keep our gaze moving so as not to fixate on any one thing outside our little group… but for half a dozen heartbeats, we had seen the space between spaces, what Merrin called the Overworld.

If one could be reduced to the size of a Champagne bubble and ride inside one of those glass tubes, it would have looked very similar to what we glimpsed.

Imriel was agog when he first saw it. Much later, when the guests had arrived, made their greetings and engaged in the usual social whirl, he linked arms with me, and with Phedre as well as we stole a moment for ourselves and stood before it. Imriel stammered just a little as he sought the words to describe his feelings. “Tis a wondrous thing, my love, to be married to someone you are so intimate with that our thoughts seem to merge at times… and yet, you still do things that are so surprising, and so inspiring.”

These were the sort of words that would have made ten times the amount of work I had put into this project worthwhile. I leaned into him and put my head on his shoulder, and noticed Phedre reciting a phrase that sounded like a benediction. In a dozen different languages she said the same group of words, finishing at last in D’Angeline; “All knowledge is worth having.”

“It is indeed. I can’t wait to see what Sushulana will make of this.” I stood there for a moment, tight against Irmiel’s flank in violation of this phase of the Ball’s decorum. The night was young, this was still the hunting and choosing part of the evening, the pairing phase was normally after the midnight ceremony. I was not thinking of that, because while I was looking at all that lively colored glass and basking in Imriel’s warm love, the feeling stole over me that I had forgotten something.

A moment later, a drum at the far corner of the ballroom began to beat at tattoo meant to gain attention, and a small chorus of voices rose in a familiar pattern. Sushulana’s dance was beginning.

That wild Elf had caught me flat-footed again.

We had to cut through the crowd with nearly indecent haste as I meant to be at the back of the stage before she finished. ’Stage’ is overstating it, Sushulana was on a raised platform barely large enough for the movements her dance required. I caught glimpses of her as Imriel cut a path for me to follow; she had fixed a small, knowing smile on her mask-like face with lips slightly parted. Sushulana had placed a small wooden plug between her teeth to hold her jaw in place, which would also help her voice sound as if she really was wearing a mask. I noticed the music more than I had the day before, the soft and limitied number of words that were of no tongue I was familiar with, but now I could guess at the origin. Sushulana had made the Bard memorize a dozen words of her own Elvish language, and set them to a simple yet compelling beat. Now, there were three young ladies singing, and to much greater effect in this crowded Ballroom than one voice had in the wintery garden.

Sushulana had kept herself busy preparing or otherwise secluded until now, and for hours we had endured questions about her that would now be answered… such was my hope at the time. We paused at the steps leading up to the temporary platform as she finished the dance and the music faded gently away. I had one more surprise this evening, a small and heavy little package snugged to my hip under a fold in my gown. My hand was on the package, and I had taken the first step up the stairs when the crowd erupted in applause. They knew nothing of the context, none of her background nor what she was about here in our city. All these good people knew was that they had been entertained in a fine way, and that someone special was among them at last. Sushulana held her final pose for a moment, and the moment slipped from my grasp as soon as it reached it’s perfection. I had taken my second step when she preformed her curtsy to the crowd, and then stepped right off the edge of a platform that was as tall as she was herself. Her arms were straight out so that quick-thinking nobles could catch hold and soften her landing.

I felt my face heating up, just a few steps away from embarrassing myself by standing alone on that vacant stage. In truth, I had only myself to blame for the failure. Instead of waiting to be surrounded like a lamb amidst a herd of cattle and buffeted this way and that, she had gone over to the offensive. I had wanted to stand by her side, formally introduce her by name and as my friend, and pin my gift to her breast. This would have been the right way to proceed, and knowing her anxiety about the D’Angeline court and peerage, I had counted on her to hesitate before taking that plunge.

I stepped back down to where Imriel waited, nearly tripping on Sushualana’s discarded sandals on the way. She had danced barefoot as a Tsingano girl might, and now she was among them in that fashion. Imriel favored me with a lopsided grin. “Lets just thank the Gods that we made no such missteps in that Fortress, when it truly mattered.”

“The Gods? Yes, after that sort of favor, I suppose we owe them a good laugh.”

 

  ***

 

There could be no question of chasing after Sushulana. In the first place, it was our night to enjoy ourselves too, and there was so much to enjoy. People we had seen but rarely in recent years sought us out, well-wishers and delightfully entertaining folk from every corner of the realm that had been patiently maneuvering for hours just to exchange a few words with us. Rewarding them to the fullest of their expectations required so little from us that it seemed effortless at times. So little, in exchange for more years of good feelings and ready alliances, I sometimes caught myself wondering what we had done to merit all this adoration. Then Imriel unbuttoned the upper half of his padded shirt in the heat of the ballroom, allowing me to catch a glimpse of his scars. The people had heard, and remembered what they had heard of our adventures. What, I wondered, could they be allowed to hear about Sushulana and Merrin? Perhaps, come morning and the end of the vigil, we would know with some certainty.

Ah, and of course there were the delightful girls with their serving trays. Joie and more joy.

It was also true that it would have been unseemly to try to corner Sushulana, as well as maddeningly difficult. She was shorter than anyone else but the serving girls, more so barefoot, and thus difficult to spot. She was moving like a Falcon among Swans, darting here and there almost at random, and never staying in one place for long. Lady Sushulana of far-off Velikiya where the borders of the Chowat, Skaldia and Vralia meet, a ship-owner that had seen the death of Carthage from a distance and then been rescued from unseemly folk by the Royal Heirs and in turn done what she could to help D’Angeline interests. This was the extent of what they learned from her, with just enough detail scattered at random to make the cross-gossip she left in her wake all the more interesting. In this, she kept to our pre-arranged plans well enough. I wished that she had been closer at hand so that we could have kept an eye on her, and helped her steer conversation back to the stories of the people who were trying to meet her. Even the most curious people can be diverted to speaking of themselves, especially if its a man that is curious about a woman.

At least they could meet her now, and ceased to pester us about her. The woman herself was present and leading them on a merry chase that occasionally ended with a dance. That most often happened when she heard something we has taught her the steps to, but she leapt out on to the floor alone to improvise on one occasion. The minstrels had launched into a lively Caerdicci tune that Sushulana took a fancy to, and showed her appreciation with her twirls and aggressive steps, utterly at odds with the actual forms that were supposed to be followed.

And soon found herself face to face with Phedre.

Phedre was wearing something she and Favrielle had been conspiring about since just after my wedding, together with some of her friends from Night’s Doorstep. The Comtess appeared before Sushulana dressed as a Tsingano Heroin of yore, who’s name and deeds I had forgotten. The headscarf was the same color as her hair, and would have been difficult to notice had it not been for the silver stitching that portrayed rampant horses. Large earnings of the same silver would have seemed gaudy had they not been so delicate. Her dress was the master seamstress’s interpretation of Tsingano finery, done in the uniquely dark shade of red that was the exclusive color of the our Phedre. The low bodice was outlined by a necklace that consisted of a double-row of gold coins, and no two were alike. Coins that has passed into her hands in distant places like Vralia, Menekhet and Khebel im-Akkad… and Cytheria. Her mask was a nearly transparent veil who’s color was that of a Tsingano woman. The ensemble was completed by stylized black leather riding boots and matching belt, and from the belt dangled chords of braided leather, knotted hemp or colorful strands silk which represented every Tsingano Clan within the borders of the Kingdom.

  
Phedre, the Butterfly, confronted the Firefly that Sushulana had become.

  
Watching from 40 paces away, I was suddenly afraid that there was real enmity between the two of them. Phedre left the young man she had taken the floor with and danced before Sushulana as an instructor might, or a challenger in a contest of some sort. For her part, Sushulana froze in place for a moment, and then responded as if she had been challenged with her own counter-moves, putting her interpretation on what she had just watched Phedre do. It was not very subtle, and the others on the floor backed away to give the two of them room. The Queen herself was watching at the edge of the floor, and she pointed to the minstrels and made a rolling motion with the finger. This would now be a longer dance, she had signaled them to repeat stanzas to meet the needs the dancers. She then turned and marched straight to Imriel and myself.

“We need to talk.” She lead us to an alcove, and the Royal Guardsman that had been placed discreetly within now vacated the small place for us without any need for a command. Once within, Queen Ysandre put her back to the far wall and lost no time telling us how observant she had been this evening. “You are having difficulty keeping hold of your exotic friend tonight, aren’t you?”

“ _Hold_?” Imriel began, indignantly.

“Oh, don’t even start!” The Queen said to him sharply. “This night is too important, for her as well as for you. And another thing, what is going on with you two tonight? We all know that you two have this special bond, but since your ill-timed tryst this afternoon you have been making a spectacle of yourselves. People have noticed, and are starting to wonder if you are overdoing this legendary romance of yours.”  I found myself wondering if the wall behind her was made of brick.  “What is going on, what passed between you that I should know about?”

“She took ten years off her own lifespan and gave them to Imriel.” I spoke those words with a crispness that was just short of sharpness. To make certain that I was understood over the background noise, I said it loudly enough that the Guard outside the alcove might have heard it.

My mother gaped at me for a handful of heartbeats, and then stared at Imriel. “How are you certain that she could _do_ such a thing?”

“It certainly _felt_ that way, and we have seen her magic at work. However, that’s not how we can be sure than what she said happened did indeed occur, is it, my wife?”

“Of course!” I continued for him. “Sushulana never even has to make promises with those who know her. Every word out of her mouth is the bald truth and… oh … gods!” I glanced over my shoulder at the dance floor. “They really _are_ going to eat her alive, aren’t they?”

“I will set Phedre to monitoring her for the nonce, and now it is time that you look to yourselves, after all.” This sudden change made me look at her closely. She was not looking at us now, her gaze was tracking someone in the crowd beyond the dance floor. I did not look back now, and neither did Imriel.

“Who is it now? Surely not one of Phedre’s patrons?” I had to ask.

“No, nor an associate of mine, but one of your own. Z’ephyrine Mezieres is with us tonight.”

I swore with such hot color that my mother looked at me with some distaste, and Imriel with a total lack of understanding. “Love, remember that I told you what an object of fascination you were in the court, when we were both teenagers? Well, she was the worst of your admirers... speaking highly of you in ways that she thought might get back to you while at the same time starting rumors about you that were meant to diminish you, tearing you down from the shadows so that she could swoop in and rescue you from disgrace with a gracious offer of marriage at just the right time. I think she must have thought herself Melisande’s equal, or some such foolishness.”

Imriel was too perplexed to be resentful. “But… I’ve never even heard of her! She could not have had much success… unless…”

“No, nothing like that.” My mother assured him. “We sent her back to her Family Barony, at the farthest corner of Namarre. This is the first I have heard or seen of her in over four years, but her presence is remembered for how she vexed my daughter.”

I nodded quickly, still fighting the urge to look back. “Vexing is not the right word. Z’ephyrine is hardly as subtle as she thinks, she is too eager to pull the first strings she can find to tweak people in just the wrong way, just to see what will happen.”

Imriel went pale behind his beard. “Sushulana will kill her.” He shook his head when the Queen began what she thought was a knowing nod. “No, I don’t mean that in any figurative sense at all. I mean that if Sushulana figures all this out and sees that foolish woman having her fun at our expense, she just might take it into her head to deal with this Z’ephyrine in this very room!”

  ***

 

The Queen said she would take care of the situation, but I saw little direct evidence of her doing so. Z’ephyrine continued to roam freely with her following of younger men and women. Perhaps there were scions that were too well-connected to make ejecting the trouble-maker a simple matter, but I suspect another force was at work that night. Queen Ysandre was testing Sushulana, anxious to see if she really was such an unrestrained maniac at heart. If she was, Z’ephyrine’s mean little life would be a small price to pay to verify Sushulana’s sanity for once and for all, in the great scheme of things. I did not see it that way, it was too soon for such a dire test. Banishment or worse must surely follow if she did do some violence here tonight, no matter what news Merrin came back with.

Now that I knew what to look for, I could spot my old antagonist. She wore a Seal’s head masking her ears and upper face, going about as a Selkie of all things. A wealth of ash-blond hair cascaded down her back and nearly to her knees, calculated sloppiness that draped her back like an airy cape. In my estimation, it was her best feature. Short-haired blue and grey fur spotted with white covered her body in a form-fitting suit, with faux claws made of glass at her hands and feet. The perfect disguise, I might have taken her for a lesser adept in the company of noble patrons had I noticed her at all.

We went straight from meeting my mother to the dance floor, and were in time to find Phedre and Sushulana still together, breathing hard and smiling in the aftermath of their dance. They had taken to imitating each other during that dance, and had turned something that could have been rivalry into a mutual learning experience… I chided myself for thinking it could have gone any other way. When we reached them they stood side by side with their backs to us with their arms across each other’s backs. Sushulana had hooked her fingers in Phedre’s belt to support her, telling me it must have become a strenuous dance… and reminding me of the Elf’s protective instincts. Facing them were Duc L’Envers and his wife. Barquiel noticed us, and I put a finger to my lip to that he would not call attention to us, I wanted to hear what Phedre was saying.

“…  appreciate the compliment, truly, but it continues to make me uncomfortable when people speak of my ‘bravery’, and in such glowing terms. Its baffling to me, at times, and coming from you, Duc…”

Now that was interesting. Barquiel’s parting words to Phedre were of her bravery, what a wonderful people we could be when we allowed ourselves. Each and every one of us.

“You modesty puzzles me as much as ever, gentle Comtess, but don’t let it trouble you. You know, if a philosopher such as yourself ever desires something to exercise their brains over, it would be to define courage itself. I have yet to meet anyone, let alone the Heroes themselves, that can properly define what quality truly is.”

“I can.” Sushulana sounded as blandly confident as ever.

“Then would you care to enlighten us?” Barquiel’s question was barely a request, and as I stole up behind Phedre, I could see the Duc’s wife was also keenly interested in what our Elf had to say, and unlikely to let things go until she had a satisfying answer.

“An abnormally powerful form of politeness. Oh, call it a sense of duty, honor, determination to do what is right, or whatever seems to suit the moment best. But when you get right down to it, what you have is people making a sacrifice for the sake of others… and what is that but a show of good manners, of the deepest consideration?”

Phedre reached up with her free hand and took hold of Sushulana’s chin, turning her face towards her. “I sometimes forget how old you are. That was… where did you learn that?”

“From _you_ , of course. I’ve also _mmrrph_!-”

Phedre pulled the Elf into a kiss that was deep and passionate, taking everyone present by surprise with the exception of Imriel. he later told me that Sushulana’s words had helped Phedre’s own great deeds become a little more sensible, more believable to her, in own mind.

Barquiel was not satisfied, D’Angeline though he may be. And D’Angeline that he was, he allowed time for their kiss to run its course as Sushulana smiled into that kiss and returned it in her fulsome way. Then he cleared his throat as his wife stared closely at Sushulana’s face and continued; “That’s not all there is to it. Dire things done by dreadful people, the cause of evil often carries great risks. What about those examples?”

“Oh yesss, those… an expression of our mutual insanity, of course.”

Sushulana had reluctantly broken the kiss and swung her head back towards the Duc in a vaguely reptilian fashion as she spoke with a voice that was somewhere between a purr and a hiss The good Duc flinched, but did not take a step back. Others did, several curious folk had gathered round, many of whom had been making an act of not paying attention to the conversation. They were paying attention now, and Sushulana showed every sign of continuing to press her advantage. “Ah, but I think you knew that already.” As she took a breath to fill her lungs for a rant, I reached out and put my hand firmly on her shoulder.

Despite all the subtle signs on the Duc’s face and others, she hadn’t known we were there. She kept her face immobile, but I did see a flash of something in her eyes that was like disappointment, or of a child being caught while doing something naughty. She quickly fell into a curtsy that was a mirror of the one Phedre did at her side. I swept the people gathered around us with a look that sent them elsewhere, and beckoned the Duc and his wife to come closer.

Imriel motioned for Phedre and then Sushulana to rise, and said softly; “Respect, please? My dear Sushulana, this man held the Kingdom together when this city was in Carthage’s grip. He may not be the nicest man in the world, but who amongst us truly is?”

I took her hand before she could put it behind her back, or take up some other military sort of pose. “Is this about what you said earlier, about how many people seem to hold Merrin in higher regard than you?”

She blinked up at me, and then nodded. “Yes, I suppose it is… well, I’ll be damned… that actually matters to me! When did _that_ start happening?” Caring what strangers thought was something new to her. I think it was Merrin’s doing, or more likely it was the knowledge that her behavior and reputation now reflected on him.

The Duc’s wife was doubly amazed, both at my bold question and Sushulana’s frank, bizarre answer to it. “What manner of person are you?”

Instead of shrugging, Sushulana smiled at her. “The sort that finds herself curiously elevated when one such as yourself calls her a ‘person’.”

Barquiel laid his hands on Sushulana’s shoulders and kissed both her cheeks. “Merrin and I are kindred spirits, at a certain level, and rare ones. We naturally gravitate towards each other, or go to war with each other as the case may be. To have captured and held his heart the way you have makes you an _equally_ special individual, and I am sorry that I have not found a way to tell you so before now. _Yes_ , you are!” He gave her a tiny shake, and I could guess what he was seeing in her expression at that moment. “Tell me, little _Alfar_ , what would the folks back where you come from have to say about all this… the peers, the aristocrats, if they knew you soon to wed this one-time Emperor of yours, eh?”

It was a shot I never would have taken, yet it told true. Instead of having one of her episodes, Sushulana smiled again, so broadly that anyone watching closely could see the wooden plug in her teeth. She also wrapped her hands around Barquiel’s arms and laughed, leaning towards him. “The peers? Oh hell, they would loose their fucking minds!”

“Why does it not surprise me that you would find that so entertaining?” he said with mock-exasperation. “Please, try not to drive this little Court of ours out of _their_ minds. Some of them have rather important things to do. And… do try to think a little more highly of yourself, Sushulana, everyone else certainly does.” Barquiel gave Phedre a significant look as he nodded to her as well, and then bowed to Imriel and I before he took his leave of us.

“Not such a bad fellow, once you get to know him.” Sushulana faced us and tilted her head towards the water-clock. “Almost the witching hour, time for you folk to take your places, isn’t it?” It was, and it wasn’t, we still had a handful of minutes to spare, else we’d not have been with her in the first place to play our very minor part in that memorable scene. “Is there anything I can do to help out with things?”

“You have been having a very active night, are you sure you are up for more exertions with so many more hours to go till dawn?”

“Highness, Merrin is out there trying to commune with Gods that set him up with. If I don’t have something to do, some way to release my energy, I swear I’ll start kicking something.”

 

  ***

 

It all looks very different when you are taking part in it. It is impossible to see much of anything when you are wearing the Crone’s mask and the Hall is in darkness, hearing is nearly as difficult. Ah, but when it comes off and those stifling rags are no more, it is wondrous to see the fete’ all around you reappear as if by magic as the lights come up, and you find yourself at the center of it all. It can also be a little disorienting, but with Imriel there to guide me the sudden reappearance of walls and floors at unexpected angles was as nothing to me. We saluted the Queen, who returned the gesture with her usual bemused detachment. I was sorry that my Father and Alais could not be here, Merrin’s power had made that such a tantalizing possibility. We had decided that enough disruption had been caused by our exotic guests, and that the sudden appearance of our loved ones would cause too many questions that could not be answered yet, too much vivid speculation. Best to let Alba sleep in her innocence through this season, things would be interesting enough with Queen Ysandre in residence there over the next winter.

That too had been decided. I believe it was because Ysandre dreaded the notion that Drustan might die in his sleep one night while she was presiding over a celebration such as this one, and she not even know of it until the next Spring, dreadful as that notion was…. and wildly premature in my reckoning. Albans may not live as long as D’Angeline folk, tis true, however my father wasn’t half a century old yet!

The Queens’s eyes were drawn upwards, and we knew what she was seeing. The ‘mountain’ was a made of paper and wooden slats, for the most part, impossible to walk on without putting one’s foot right through it. We has sent Sushulana up there, where her magic would make her float in the air as she seemed to do the impossible. Having ‘walked’ up the back of the mountain out of view of the revelers, she now stood just behind the peak with her back turned to everyone, white cloak spread to simulate the quarter-Moon. In unison, Imriel and I turned, and gave the Moon a friendly wave. In response, she slowly set behind the peak, and then scampered down the far side of the Mountain. Too quickly, she was immersed in the whirl of the crowd again. I wanted to bite my lip as we finished up with our stately procession, my gift heavy on my hip again.

“She does not wish to be shepherded, it would appear.” Imriel remarked when we were free to take a seat and some refreshment.

“Z`ephyrine is still out there.” I reminded him. “Now she knows for certain that Sushulana is special to us.”

“I had nearly forgotten about that one.” He pondered the situation for a whole minute, and then suggested that we send her a note.

I smiled and wrote one on a page from a booklet and summoned a girl of 12 summers that was serving Joie. “Slip this to the woman that played the moon, child, and do so in a way that can’t be seen by the others if you can.”  
We later found out that Sushulana received the note and discarded it without reading it, as it was one of half a hundred that she had received that evening.

Once that was done, Imriel commented “You mother may have a point. Not that I think Sushulana will turn violent here tonight, but lets allow things to take their course. I saw the look in Sushulana’s eye when you cut her short with Barquiel. She seems to want her freedom. Let her have it, let her come to us when she feels the need.”

And so we did, relaxing into the later phase of the evening. In these hours, poise was more casual, people wandered of on assignations of their own (sometimes going no farther than behind curtains) and masks were gradually shed along with fragments of some of the costumes. We found ourselves seated opposite Apollonaire and Dianna of Fhrize, the brother and sister who stood out for licentiousness even among the D’Angeline peerage. This pair had enjoyed, together, a series of assignations with Phedre years ago. Roughly the time Imriel was born, I believe, and I knew how touchy Imriel could be about such things. On this night, they were not terribly interested in Phedre, they were interested in the two of us!

This put Imriel more at ease than had they chosen to reminisce about Phedre, in fact they did not even mention her. They spoke of many things, and described additions made to their entertainment facilities in detail, and how they looked forward to entertaining us someday soon. We danced verbally, and when the minstrels found the strength for one last tune of proper grandiosity, we danced in the physical sense. I do mean physical; all four of us made daring passes over each other’s bodies, and unsubtle squeezes finished the encounter as Imriel and I spun away in each other’s arms for a dance of our own. We left them with no firm answer. In the warmth of the moment, I don’t think we had made up our minds.

It was not the only such encounter as the small hours of the night flew past.

Half the people we met seemed surprised, by me. Imriel said they found me more animated, agreeable and open than they could ever recall. Most of them attributed it to marriage, perhaps, and my newly unfettered life with my Prince. I confess that the marriage, while glorious and the most special day of my life, was hardly the beginning of our life together as lovers of the most intimate sort. No, if there really had been such a change in me, part of it must be due to a new appreciation of life, thanks to our new friends.

_Never waste time, never taken anyone for granted..._

The Hall was more than half empty as the hours remaining before dawn dwindled, and we set about at last to celebrate in company with Sushulana. Not to chaperone, but to enjoy her company and share the night with her. I think we deserved as much. The trouble, as always, was finding her. When we did, she was seated among half a dozen young folk, and when I say young I mean that they were barely of age to be invited to a fete’ such as this. An equal number of older folk hovered around the gathering as chaperones, some being Parents or Grandparents of these young scions. Two boys of about 15 were sitting on pillows on the floor, competing gently for our Elf's attentions. One of them was kissing the palm of her hand in a way that made her shudder with suppressed laughter, and the other was using the pretense of massage to stroke her legs. He must have been puzzled by the way Sushulana kept the sole of her right foot firmly to the floor.

We saw this all from a distance, and as we approached I also observed that a change was coming over the gathering, and not a pleasant one. Conversation became more pointed, and the young men at Suahulana’s legs pulled back as she leaned into her reply. At one point she pointed at where we had been presiding over the Ball a few minutes earlier, and spat out that wooden plug when she saw we were not there. Half rising to put a leg down on the chair she was sitting in, Sushulana began to lecture them in such a heated way that the older folks moved in. They were either being protective of their charges or had decided to challenge her somehow.

I wanted to rush to her side, but Imriel gripped me tight and steered me around to a column where a shadowy figure stood, her back to us, watching the same scene intently. The soft tones of her attire would have made her invisible to us, yet the white spots gave her away. Z’ephyrine Mezieres was having _her_ sort of fun, observing the chaos she has sewn.

She has spent hours, perhaps half the night, weaving her web. Indirectly, she had been causing people to recall the awful spell Carthage had cast, and made them wonder how such a dreadful thing had come to pass. Were the Gods displeased, had the Royalty become too careless, or was it the greed of the decadent people of the City of Elua? We found out about all of these details later, and shook our heads in wonderment that anyone would waste so much of such a splendid night on such pursuits.

Z’ephyrine noticed us and turned as we came up behind her. It discomforted her to be discovered, yet she was not alarmed. “Highnesses.” She dipped into a barely adequate curtsy and made to stroll away. The column was now at her back, we were to either side, and so Z’ephyrine had to pass between us to make her getaway. I don’t know what she was expecting from Imriel, but she certainly was surprised when I resorted to a physical response to her insolence. I grabbed her right hand, yanked her arm straight at a downward angle, and bent her hand downward at the wrist. Imriel, who had taught me the move, did the same thing on her left side, and did me one better by pulling her arm around his back. I saw that, smiled, and did the same thing, thus creating the illusion that Z’ephyrine had found favor with us and was being escorted about by the Prince and Princess. How she would have looked had she attempted to struggle, or even show anger at such treatment, was the stuff on nightmares for a courtier. Ah, but once the shock wore off, she was infuriated. She may have been frightened, but I could also feel muscles in her arms ripple under the sealskin, testing my grip. “You don’t dare-“

“Come now Z’ephyrine,” Imriel said with a soft and unpleasant voice. “let us all have a better look at what you have wrought.”

Now she _did_ try to resist, even with her hands held painfully by both of us, digging her heels in as we hauled her around the column to face that gathering again. I pushed her mask up roughly, leaving just her forehead covered. Z’ephyrine gawped at me, nothing in my past had prepared her for the idea that I could, or would, be so physically aggressive. She knew nothing of the truth of what had happened on Kyrnos, Rhodos and Cythreria, and I exploited that. “It would be nearly as easy for some people to remove the skin from your face. Come, I want to introduce you to one of those people, she’s right over there. The one you have been working to put in an awkward position.” Z’ephyrine mewled and went rigid, making our approach slower yet as we approached, now within easy hearing hearing range as Sushulana stood and launched into her lecture.

“Yes, I _do_ think I know something of their will. It was your religion, _ours_ now, that drew me to this place from father away than you can imagine. I in turn lured Lord Kirin, whom I have been able to accept as my mate thanks to our God’s grace." (Lord Kirin was what we had been calling Merrin in public) "So pardon me for my presumption, but my attachment to the faith of Elua goes back a bit farther than this two-month pilgrimage I have been making.”

“That’s interesting.” Interesting indeed, the man who spoke was Amaury Trente, a famously loyal if unimaginative General and former commander of the Royal Guard. I’d not recognized him as he’d allowed his beard and mustache to grow out as they turned a snowy white, it was his voice that made him distinctive. This was no chaperone, Sushulana had caught his attention when she had introduced War-games to our officers. “And what has your dedication taught you? Why do you think that our beloved Gods would have allowed such a travesty as Carthage visited upon us to take place?”

“First of all, I think its a bit presumptuous to think that they have to ‘allow’ any of us enjoy the results of our own folly.” While the more mature members of the gathering liked the sound of that, the youngest of them scoffed.

“What folly?” This was from Celine’, a niece of Childric d’Essoms, of perhaps 16 summers and looking rather bored with it all.

“The folly of taking Blessed Elua’s most important advice to us all, and shoving it right up his ass.” She paused for just a heartbeat or two, but in that time Imriel and I were the ones digging in our heels, horrified. Between us, Z’ephyrine relaxed, and began to smile as everyone in the gathering either gaped or shrank back from Sushulana. “LOVE AS THOU WILT, isn’t that the commandment? And yet, what do you aristocrats do, year after year, you arrange marriages and send your children, your own loved ones, off to spend their adult lives with people they barely knew before hand. Sent to loveless matches in so many cases, it is a fluke if such matches turn affectionate, _and you all know it_.. Love? Hah! You do it for personal enrichment, political advantage … and I suspect, because its what was done to you elders in the first place and you can’t help passing the misery on down the line.”

I didn’t know if I should applaud or scream at her to stop.

“That’s hardly a fair assessment!” Amaury spluttered. Far from bored now, the teenagers were looking back at their elders with eyes that were a reflection of Sushulana’s agitation. “We need to make alliances-“

“Then how about doing it honestly?” Her voice rose with her temper. Her face had become mobile again, revealing much.. had anyone present not been riveted by her words. “How about trade, mutual aid in each other’s defense, worthwhile concessions? How about _ANY_ damn thing that does not involve using your own children as human chattel!” She cracked the back of her right fist into the palm of her left. “Other Gods might have spoiled your perfectly d’Angeline faces with warts and let you wonder why for a few decades. _Ours_ left you bare to a situation that was perfectly appropriate, and two star-crossed lovers were _the very ones_ that saved this Kingdom from a Civil War that would have divided its entire history between what came before and the grim years to follow.”

There was a deep silence that followed, and Amaury soon felt eyes on him, awaiting a response. “Well, yes, you make points that simply can’t be argued with.” He was correct, if any of his fellow elders could have made an argument, they would have. “However, I do believe that you have stated what has become an obvious truth. We of the aristocracy have been coming to a similar conclusion… what with the example the Prince and Princess have set. I think you are speaking of a dying institution.”

“Oh, for _your_ class? I hope you are right, but what about the rest of the damage you have done? Everyone else looks to you for leadership, and imitate you in more ways than you know of. The middling classes with pretentious of nobility are the best example of that… or the worst, perhaps. For generations you people have shown them that forcing your babies into loveless alliances is acceptable, how many more generations will pass before they will un-learn such a blasphemous custom?”

“But… we live such easy lives, for the most part.” Celine’ again, playing the Devil’s advocate… or perhaps her powerful Grand-Uncles advocate. Her own conduct was also an uncomfortable reminder that some heirs deserved the fate of an assigned mate, or simply did not care. “With all the luxuries we have, is it such a sacrifice?”

“Would you _need_ the luxury? Would you have to fritter away your inheritance on such diversions if you had a life that was more worthwhile? Think! All you are doing is anesthetizing yourselves from all the pain you cause yourselves. You don’t _have_ to lock yourselves away with your drugs, your secret lovers and the delicacies that make you morbidly self-satisfied. Get out there and live, and you know… I do give you d’Angeline Nobles credit for providing your people with good leadership. Yes, you stand head  & shoulders above the Nobility of the rest of the worlds-” She cut herself short and pretended to cough in her sleeve, “ahem, the rest of the this world’s peerage when it comes to that. You _can_ afford to give yourselves and your children better options when it comes to their personal lives.” If that dreary old custom had still been alive when she had started speaking, it’s death-knell had been sounded by the time Sushulana had finished. Fifteen people had heard her from the beginning, and I could see that none of them could deny her points. Many of them looked ready to shout her words from the rooftops… if only they had been phrased in a more acceptable way.

I would set the poets to working on that, come morning.

Z’ephyrine chose that moment to try to escape from our grasp. She nearly slipped free of my grip despite the painful pressure on her hand, and Imriel saw what was about to happen. He let go of her and gave her a firm shove forward, making her stumble to the edge of the gathering. Sushulana looked over at her, and asked “You again?”

With just those two words she unwittingly damned Z’ephyrine in the eyes of all concerned. When they saw her, the elders knew they had been maneuvered into this subject and this company. As for the youths, even those that had been in on it saw her as pathetic now, the kiss of death in circles such as their own.

Sushulana saw their reactions, and the truth dawned on her as well. She also noticed us, and she flashed Imriel a smile that bared her teeth. “Ah, a present, for _me_?” She was at her predatory best, three swift steps taking her right up to Z’ephyrine’s face. Her own face was being bared as the gold leaf began to peel away from her newly mobile mien. “Tell me, sweetie, have you ever become acquainted with Kushiel’s wheel?”

The Noblewoman panicked and raised a hand to Sushulana, probably to fend her off. Sushulana caught it and hissed at the sight of the claws, and then smiled most unpleasantly as her other hand came up to grasp the glass claws one by one, and broke them off. “Fake, fake, fake,” she cooed as she dropped them to the floor, and with the last one between thumb and forefinger, she tapped Z’ephyrine’s nose and said one last time, “fake.”

She opened her hand to let Z’ephyrine go as she turned to flee. Putting the incident behind her in the blink of an eye, she turned to us and approached with arms out wide. “I was starting to wonder when you two would get lonely without me.”

Such impudence deserved it’s just reward, and we were not about to let her go skipping away from this encounter. One glance was all I needed to come to an accord with Imriel. We seized her about her upper arms and strolled into the center of the little gathering with her suspended between us. Sushulana did not resist, but she did whisper “Oh, and _this_ is dignified?”

We could not help laughing, and did the best to compose ourselves as we set her down among the people she had just been haranguing. I glanced about quickly, and saw that what enmity she had earned from them had largely been transferred to Z`ephyrine, and I meant to keep it that way before they started to ponder her suddenly mobile features. “Ladies and Gentlemen, please rise, and stay with us a moment.”

Sushulana ceased to giggle and stared into our eyes as the crowd around us stood, some swaying from the effects of Joie, and observers doubled in numbers as I removed my mask and Imriel shed his fake beard. The Elf must have been wondering if she was in for a dressing-down after her strident words.

As if _that_ would have done any good…

“Lady Sushulana von Velikiya,” I began, not knowing the Chowatti word for ‘of’, I used the Skaldi word, her accent still made it a believable point of origin, “it is regrettable that so much of what you have done for us must remain a State Secret. The immensity of what you have added to our lives, however, must be rewarded somehow. The journey you have made is naught if not stupefying, and most of all your exceptional loyalty must be acknowledged. That alone, my Truthseeker, qualifies you to receive this.” I’d had some grander speech in mind. However Joie, Champagne and various activities had taken their toll on me. My hand emerged from the folds of golden cloth at my hip, and I held forth the brooch I had been carrying all night for her. I held it before me so that she and as many of the people gathered around us could see the gold brooch. “Do you know what this is?”

Sushulana did, she fell to her knees, both of them. She knew, and the gasps around us told me that our audience did as well. It was not a terribly large bit of jewelry, this  masterpiece of the jeweler’s art. A many-rayed star etched with Elua’s sigil, and set in the center was one of the small spheres of Quartz that Xoltan had given us, replacing the diamond that had sat there when this brooch had been Phedre’s.

The Companion’s star.

Yes, the selfsame one. Why should it moulder in some storage room in the treasury, to be forgotten and melted down someday, centuries from now with Sushulana herself perhaps still living? The boon it carried had been exhausted, its useful life had ended, but only for that generation. Not only was it a lovely piece, it was what it was, a symbol. Imriel had also argued that while the Kingdom might someday be awash with Chowatti Gold {thanks to Sushulana}, that day had not come yet.

These were the arguments we put before my mother and Phedre. The Queen’s companion had produced her sphere and handed it to us. ‘This should fit nicely, once you have removed the diamond and drilled the setting out a bit.’ There was little the Queen could say after that, but she did wish it to be a ceremony that she would _not_ have to preside over.

“You must be on your feet for this.” Imriel told her as he helped Sushulana to her feet. “You are never to kneel again, not in this land, not before any mortal… however difficult you may find it to restrain yourself from doing so.” Imriel was doing a masterful job of keeping his face gravely neutral, even in sarcasm.

“Know that you will be instantly granted access to my presence, and you must address me by my name rather than by my titles,” I added with a whisper; “ _not that anything could stop you_.” Sushulana had to bite down on both cheeks to contain a smile. “and that your voice will be heard in Court or in Parliment. There is also the Boon, granting you any favor in my power to grant you… I would advise you save that for the day I do become Queen.” I pinned the brooch to her upper garment, a thick and sturdy wrap that may have saved her breast from a stab. I leaned in to kiss her cheeks, and we exchanged whispers.

“I am _never_ giving this up, no matter what ‘boon’ I may think I need!”

I answered her with a knowing smile, and nuzzled her bejeweled ear. “I thought at much. There is a new etching in the back, and recorded in the archives. Half a millennia from now, should you need it and should a Courcel still be living, my favor will be waiting for you.”

She caught hold of me before I could pull back. “What if I can’t stay? What if Merrin is rejected?”

“Matters not. We will carry you in our hearts.” I stood tall before her and patted the Star on her breast. “And should you ever forget, look upon this and remember."

“Damnit Sidonie! I shouldn’t be crying anymore! I’ve let more tears go in the last 3 months than in the last 100 years!”

“Well then it was high time to let them go, wasn’t it?” I winked at Sushulana, and said to her and to the crowd, now perhaps some 30 strong; “Lets move on to the Champagne. Against all odds, some remains, let us see to the finish of it!”

 

“I had to look at this twice before I understood what you had done.” Sushulana stood before the rainbow of glass and Champagne by my side after dozens of revelers had toasted her, and then gone off to gossip about what they had witnessed. “Its beautiful, and it makes me think about something that was so familiar to me that I’d stopped giving it the proper reverence, I suppose.”

“The perfect commentary. You have had a similar effect on us.” I drank from my glass as the last of the Champagne drained from the cask. “To tell the truth, all I wanted to do was impress you.”

“You have.” She drank as well, and thumped my thigh with her hip. As I struggled with errant bubbles in my throat, she continued; “Your enjoying this, aren’t you? You have absolutely floored someone 20 times your age and left me wondering how you will amaze me yet again. Ahhh, but on the other hand, what you have really done was save some homeless waif that had no right to your grace in the first place.” Still staring at the empty, magic-drained glass, she added, “It goes without saying that I’d be dead by now if it weren’t for you, and Merrin really _would_ have lost his mind. There are boons, lovely girl, and then there is grace beyond measure.”

 

For several hours, we relaxed and allowed the various carrying-on of the revelers entertain _us_. We had done more than enough for our guests. I relaxed, Imriel relaxed, my Mother and Phedre nested with us and relaxed so well that they dozed off from time to time. Sushulana paced, sat down, nibbled on things she barely looked at, and never truly relaxed. An hour before Dawn, Phedre yawned and gave in to the inevitable. We all rose as she did to see her off. “A carriage ride may revive me. Even so, when Joscelin returns from his vigil he’s likely to find me asleep in the hot bath meant for him.” As she was making her farewells, she tapped the Companion’s Star and smiled at Sushulana. “Keep it close to you, and keep it well. Remember how fond you have made us of you.”

“Always.” Sushulana answered her, and then rolled her eyes as she sat back down. “I didn’t mean to-“

Imriel waved a hand at her. “Its a _word_! Sushulana, you don’t intrude on our intimacy. If anything, you have enhanced it.”

"Speaking of words." Sushulana tugged at the Star and angled it so that she could see part of the new inscription on the back, and arched an eyebrow at me, " _Nemesis_?"

My mother knew the story, and cut loose with a rare, full-throated laugh.

Five minutes after Phedre left, complaining of such exhaustion that she could barely stay awake, she returned, wide awake and not alone. A stir arose from the entry all the way down the hall to where we reclined in the most comfortable couches in the realm. A name was spoken, at first as an announcement, and then repeated as an exclamation of astonishment. Sushulana jumped to her feet with a panic-stricken look on her face, not wanting to believe what this might mean.

In the final minutes of the Longest Night, Joscelin Verreuil had entered the Midwinter Ballroom.


	16. 55

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, its done, finally, and its very late & I'm very tired. Seven months was more than I had thought to spend on this, and not enough to do it justice.
> 
> I'll have something better to say at a later date, bed is calling and I have a so-called life to get back to. Good night!
> 
> 4/14/15

 

  **55**  

 

Joscelin looked about him as he entered, walking swiftly and pulling Phedre along with him. As he surveyed the mess, the disheveled air of the people and the room itself, revelers sprawled unconscious among the discarded plates and glassware, his face suggested this thoughts; _This_ _is what the all fuss has been about_?

He was halfway to us when Sushulana broke from us and ran to him. She skidded to a stop when Joscelin smiled at her and raised a hand with a closed fist, and shook it. Warriors gave this sign to each other, to signify victory. With a squeal of delight she hugged him, and at once became the only woman besides Phedre to be hugged in return by the taciturn Casseline, and the only one who could get a smile from Phedre for doing so. They spoke briefly, I could imagine the questions fired at Joscelin, and he nodded towards us and continued his approach with one arm around Phedre and the Elf circling them both, bouncing on her heels when they came to a stop and bowed to us. Joscelin could not keep his eyes away from the Star on Sushulana’s breast.

“Highnesses, is there somewhere we can speak?”

There was still frost on his braid and dust on his knees. Joscelin had come straight from his vigil and was not to be denied. A creeping tide of the curious followed him, subtly and otherwise. The Queen led us straight to a private balcony warmed by braziers and blocked from view by heavy drapes.

Joscelin was anything but relaxed, and happily it was a good sort of agitation. “I can’t tell you everything as I’m not sure of what happened, exactly, When he flew off he was thrilled but also distracted, and it may be some time before he returns to us.”

“He FLEW, from the middle of the city!” Sushulana could barely contain herself, and she was also starting to shiver. The balcony was not icy, but she was hardly dressed for any sort of cold. I hugged her from one side and Imriel came in from the other side. She was soon clinging to us, and for more than just shared warmth.

“Yes Sushulana, he did, he’d been in his natural form the whole while, and he was using that power of his to make himself… _dim_ , hard to spot, whatever you call it. He exempted me from that effect and I noticed him curled up in one corner of the yard as soon as I entered. I chose my ground near him to ward away anyone that might come close enough to bump into the ‘invisible’ Dragon, and that turned out to be unnecessary. All four of the other Brothers there found themselves to be more comfortable elsewhere.

“Merrin did greet me in his silent, strange way, and wished me well on this grueling night.” Joscelin put an arm around Phedre and pulled her close. “Yes, love, even for me its still an ordeal, and not one to be taken lightly. I returned the sentiment and settled in for my meditation. As for the Dragon, in a remarkably short time he had become easy to ignore. It does sound peculiar, even to recall it myself. It had something to do with his coloring, to be sure he faded into the night like a grey cat once you looked away and thought about anything else... but there was something else at work. Not from him, perhaps, but one can never be sure with that one. Perhaps it was nothing about powers or colors, but the way he hunkered down in his corner, eyes closed, head low, as if he was already in his own little world.

"Just a couple of hours ago, things became very different there. I myself did not feel a presence, but I was pulled from my reverie by a conversation… half of it. I think that Merrin had left a door open when he has communicated with me, and forgotten to close it. The echoes, as if coming from another room, and down a hall so softly that I could just barely hear it, and yet to compelling that it drew my attention unerringly. That is what it sounded … _felt_ like, I should say. It was not words as we understand them, but a more complete form of communication.

Phedre nodded, her fullest attention on her Companion. “Yes, that is how it is, I felt it the same way on every occasion the Gods sent something to me.”

Joscelin described what happened;  
**Honored.... and yes** This, all of what I tell you, came from Merrin. I could sense nothing of the other half of the conversation. **Young? Oh,... but that's of no concern to me. Sushulana says… please, yes, anything you may wish to share is accepted with gratitude.**  
“He was being solicitous, to our gods! I think he was trying to reassure them that his vast age was not going to cause him to presume a superior position or put on airs. That was so astonishing that I fear I missed the next few thoughts.”

“Forgivably so, but it does sound like the Merrin I know.” Sushulana mused softly.

“It does, but only since he and you began to come together. Now, after a moment I looked over and saw that Merrin had raised his head, eyes open and staring at the icon, and then up at the sky. Not being an expert at reading the face of a Dragon, all I can tell you is that the eyes showed a profound sense of relief. We have seen that before, but as for the rest...

**That's all? Well…. yes, Naturally** Something satisfying to both parties had passed. **I see. And that other matter.... NO! I was merely.... YES!** that last was near to a desperate shout, as if to a presence leaving, **YES the terms are acceptable. We will honor this, and you, the best way we know how.**

“He paused, eyes on the stars now, and they glittered in a way I have not seen, before. The Dragon noticed my attention, and I think Merrin felt badly when he realized that my awareness had been drawn into something so distracting. I have ceased mistrusting that Dragon, not just because of the communion I witnessed, but for the way HE apologized to ME for disturbing my vigil, and promptly flew away. As for myself, all that I felt , once he left, taking his he whirling thoughts with him, was a sense that things would turn out as they should now.”

“What, that’s it?”

“Well, Sushulana, the Brothers were alarmed by the whirlwind his departure caused, they could still see nothing of him.” Joscelin put a comforting if chilly hand on her head. “Your Merrin has communed extensively with our Gods, and it came to a satisfying conclusion. Take that and be happy with it, I’m sure that he will come to you as soon a he is able.”

“But, you came straight here, didn’t you? What’s wrong with him? What do you mean ‘as soon as he’s able’?” She was bouncing on her heels,  more impatient than she was cold now.

Phedre answered for Joscelin. “As one that has felt their presence, I can tell you that a direct communication with Gods can leave one a bit shaken. What Merrin just went through… its even more involved than anything I have experienced. He needs time, for himself, to organize his thoughts. Surely you can understand that?” Sushulana nodded, and ceased to squirm and sift about.

Joscelin withdrew his hand and blew on it, slowly thawing out after his vigil and swift ride to the Palace. “Dare I ask how your evening passed?”

The Queen had been watching the sunrise, remote from the conversation until now. She let out a low chuckle and swept past us on her way back inside. “Oh, it went exceedingly well, right up to the moment when Sushulana accused a quarter of the Kingdom of heresy.”

“I did not!” Sushulana nearly squealed in response. The Queen paussed at the curtained exit from the Balcony and tilted her head at the Elf, eyebrows raised and her smile a hard, tight line. Sushulana was forced to recall her rant regarding arranged marriages. “Unless I _did_ …oh hell.”

Joscelin, who had never been known to indulge in gossip, promptly suggested that we all have some tea and perhaps a little breakfast. “And if Sushulana would like to practice the explanations she will have to give Merrin, I’m all ears.”

***

 

Other people that have had barely a brush with the Gods need days to assimilate what they had learned. Merrin arrived while we were still seated around a private table sipping tea. My mother had gone to bed, Phedre was dozing in her chair and Imriel looked as if he was about to fall out if his, yet they both perked up when the Dragon arrived. Merrin had a smile on his face and a distant look in his eyes that snapped into focus as soon as he saw Sushulana. She rose, as did we all, and went to him.

“Was it difficult?” She asked as they wrapped hands around each other’s forearms.

“No. Taxing, in a way, but all in all it went beautifully. Its simpler and more elegant that what we were talking about between ourselves, Sushulana. For the next 100 years, the Gods will not take these D’Angelines and use them as their Heroes, their tools. It falls to use, WE do the things that need to be done. These good people get a century of peace provided we take the signs shown to us and right the wrongs that would otherwise be their burden."

Phaing nods, "Yes, yes that would be... and then what, will be counted among them?"

Merrin; "No dearest, I do believe we already _are_ , else-wise, why did I even hear all this? At the end, we can dwell here, rather than just visit from time to time. Meanwhile, our mission is best accomplished from outside this Kingdom. Its a very large world, and we need to keep an eye on a vast part of it.”

I did not like the sound of this.

"What these folk call visits can last a season! Gods yes... a hundred years, its.... yes, I can do that with ease, and there is so much to be done, isn't there? So, how do we let them know I agree? Shall I go to the...." Her voice trailed off when she saw his face, his very human face, go pale. His jaw dropped and it was obvious that he had not even thought about this part. "You accepted for both of us on the spot, didn't you?" Her voice was naught but a penetrating whisper.

It was fascinating, and a little frightening to observe Merrin for the next minute. Standing on the balls of his feet, true panic write large on him as he tried to apologize. She was hearing none of it. "You _promised_ me! This is only going to work if I am first and foremost in your thoughts. ME, and you just leapt into a deal like that with the Gods just assuming that-"

"You _would_ have agreed!"

"Yes I would have, its perfect, but the common decency to _ask_ _me_ is something that you should have at least thought of, isn't it?" And she abruptly turned her back on him and took a few steps away, seemingly turning her back on the whole enterprise, even the relationship itself. As it all hung in the balance Merrin tried to follow her, but Imriel and Joscelin moved to intercept him. He turned to them in desperation, needing advice. Sushulana walked towards us stiffly, shoulders twitching as if she had just been stabbed in the back. Phedre and I moved in to enfold the Elf with sisterly compassion. As we put our arms around her, I saw her dark and now familiar eyes flicker… with amusement.

"How long do you think I should let him stew?" She smiled, tongue poking out of her lips.

Phedre ducked her head away from the men, so that they would not see her face change. ”You’re not even _mad_ at him?"

Phaing; "Oh, I am, just enough to teach him a lesson.” She looked into the stunned disbelief in my face. “What? No, dear ones, what I'm going to do is take something that could be an ugly scene and make it something beautiful. Sid... it is you that reminds me of what I said about happiness. Please allow me to show you how its done." She turned and smiled at Merrin without further ado. " _Gotcha_ "

It did us all good to see Merrin the Great standing there, speechless and immobile. He was not the only one.

It was Imriel that spoke first; "You can't be serious."

"Oh but I am.” Sushulana gave the men a sly wink as she walked back to Merrin. “I can see that I am first in your thoughts _now_ , and will be for some time, eh?" She hugged him, wrapping one leg and one arm around Merrin, and using her free hand to pull his head down towards hers. The Dragon did not resist her in the slightest way. "Oh, so I wasn't paged while you were talking with a God , of all things. I can forgive a mortal foible once in a while, but please remember this day and my right to choose, alright? Please don't make me feel too terribly insignifcant in the scheme of things.”

“I promise.”

***

 

We all had to sit down again. This last twist in the tempestuous tale of Elf and Dragon had left us drained, and I was upset. I felt cheated and I did not appreciate what had happened. My dream of having Sushulana fulfill _her_ dream at the University we were building had gone up in smoke when I wasn’t looking.

“I don’t understand this!” My mouth had just barely started to open when Imriel started firing questions at Merrin. “You have been told to guard our Kingdom, while at the same time remove yourself from our society? Are you certain you understood that clearly?”

“Yes.” Merrin answered him. “And… no.” He held up both hands to fend off more questions from Imriel and myself. I felt my nose wrinkle in waves as he attempted to explain himself. “We are not removing ourselves from anything, not permanently. Please relax Love,” Sushulana was also looking at him sharply now, “what we need, what we _all_ need, is a little time and distance to make certain adjustments. Elua and his Angels are very pleased with the progress that Terre d’Ange has been making. They are concerned that _we_ are a bit… much. We were not planned for, not invited, and our own understanding of this whole situation is far from complete. The unfolding of this miraculous land is a delicate thing, and what we know of other worlds will take it too far, to quickly.”

I brought both fists down on the table hard enough to make the settings jump. “All knowledge is worth having!” Sushulana and Imriel were as upset as I was, but when I turned my head to see the opinion of Phedre, who was the living person most closely associated with that phrase, I saw gentle acceptance of Merrin’s words. Even Sushulana herself was cooling down when I needed her most. Oh no, that would _not_ do. “This is completely unfair and I won’t stand for it!”

“No, I’m not so sure about this either, but you’ll still be seeing us as often as you can stand us.” She winked at me. “We’ll find a nice little house on the outskirts and set up our… what?”

Merrin was shaking his head at her. “We can’t, we haven’t earned the right. We can’t own property here.”

“What… _beggars_ , is that what we are to be?” Sushulana asked breathlessly.

And there it was. Merrin with his dignity, Sushulana and her unwillingness to be a burden of any sort. Even if she was coming around to share my opinion of how unjust this situation was… she was hurting again, and I had to stop that, even if it meant coming around myself, just a little. I swallowed my own bile and attempted to see it as our Gods did. That thought-path calmed me and stole my anger away, and allowed me to say something comforting instead of combative. “It’s not like that, we’ll be here for you and you will be welcome always.” I reached across the table and tapped her Star. “Always.” She smiled at me, but it was a hollow one, so I added; “Its so easy to be happy, all you have to do is put your common sense ahead of your pride.”

Merrin gaped at me, and then smiled. “I heard something very much like that in my head last night.”

“Truth is truth.” Phedre said quietly. “Is there anything else you remember them saying to you?”

He nodded. “It was not things that were said, it was impressions … and one in particular stands out. You see, I’ve know about this thing called love for a long time, but I did not understand it until recently Very recently.” He switched his gaze to Sushulana. “I surrendered to it, and not just for your sake, my faith in you required that I put faith in what you value so highly. It is a remarkable thing… you would think that power is something I am familiar with, but love empowers one so tremendously… I wasn’t ready for that. I feel stronger now than I ever have. Such a vast thing, that…” his eyes flickered at all of us in the midst of a heartfelt conversation with his love, and then he continued anyway, “… that it humbles me. _Me_ of all creatures.” Sushulana slid into his lap and huddled there as Merrin put his arms around her, her head on his chest and eyes closing slowly. He lowered his head and spoke softly into her messy hair. “I do believe it was that, and that alone, that gave Elua and his Angles cause to accept me.”

“Oh Merri, it wasn’t a matter of them accepting _you_. They have been waiting for you to accept _them_.”

What did my concerns mean after something like that? A deep moment of silence lasted so long that the rest of us began shift about, ready to leave for beds that called to us with increasing insistence.

Sushulana yawned, and murmured; ”100 years... I had wanted to have our babies before then."

"They did not specifically forbid it. The reaction was more like-” Sushulana jolted upright in his lap and was staring at Merrin as if he had roared at her. “… are you aright?"

"You _were_ thinking of me, with a freaking God whispering in your head and your destiny in the balance... and you thought of my silly little... _holy **shit**_ do you have any idea how much I love you?!"

"I think I do, but there is nothing little or silly about you. Not to me." Merrin learned to ignore his audience that day, pulling Sushulana up for a kiss that was the beginning of a new life for the both of them.

 

 

**Five and a half years later…**

 

It was not the ending I had wanted, not at all. I had to wait years for one that would satisfy me, and that would make a proper closing for beginning of their story in our world.

The people of the City were also dissatisfied. Just a month after the Ball, Sushulana fled from what was said to be public disfavor after her rash comments and accusations of impiety. The public was sorry to see her leave once she was gone, and upset that the mystery surrounding her left as well. Lord Kirin followed her the next day, allowing for endless speculation about their relationship, and enough fabricated gossip to keep everyone entertained for years to come. There was nothing else to go on, no other news and even the flow of rumors from elsewhere dried up. In a handful of years, they were essentially forgotten by most of the common folk.

Our peers were more difficult to distract, they were aware that the Royal Archivists were never summoned to take down any records of our activities in the Southern Sea until after the Ball, and that they were unsatisfied with the bland and contrived story we fed them. We soon gave them much more to concern themselves with. Our solution to the problem of Banks was taking shape, and if that was not controversial enough there was also a trickle of Chowatii coming to our city eager to learn all that was knowable. As the trickle became a steady flow the supply of gold also increased, and a new University took shape with a controversial emphasis on the mystical arts. Sushulana reluctantly kept her distance, she took the injunction seriously and refused to simply lay out all her spells for us to take advantage of. Research would be the University’s primary role. Sushulana assured me that this would not be the bittersweet thing that I had taken it to be; her knowledge of magic was limited and sharp-edged, the discoveries each generation of d’Angelines made were certain to be interesting, and far better suited to our own needs. Her function would be to correct mistakes that could lead to disaster.

The need for secrecy was greater then ever. Merrin was concerned that the public knowledge of their protection would cause the d’Angeline folk to become soft and complacent, incapable of defending themselves should the need ever arrise, and Sushulana worried that our descendants would be incapable of looking after themselves after 100 years of assured peace. She rightly thought that having lost the habit, even the ability to prepare for trouble would be beyond them.  
We few that knew the truth, meanwhile, could work with the precious knowledge that we could focus our energy where it belonged; on our people and their well-being. If all went as we hoped, this would be a joyful age.

With the passage of months and years, I came to understand the wisdom of our Gods. The cloak of secrecy and their vagabond status was not merely to protect our Kingdom from Merrin and Sushulana… not even by half. Mighty as they were, there were only the two of them. There would always be another Z’ephyrine to torment Sushulana, and someday there could well be another Chalcondyles. Outspoken and eager to involve themselves with the affairs of a Kingdom that they barely understood the nuances of, they would become targets for the unscrupulous. Imriel and I could not protect them from all the skullduggery that was a daily feature of life in our own Palace, let alone the whole of Terre d’Ange. We had our own lives to live, and those lives would soon be taking a new turn. My Mother the Queen was introducing the concept of Honorable Retirement to the traditions of house de la Courcel, and the running of the Kingdom was soon to become our providence on a full-time basis.

 

The coronation would take place in September, and so this summer was the last we would be able to spend without making ourselves available to the Court and Parliament. We decided to spend it at Montreve, and our exotic guardians joined us there.

Mercurial little Anielle was a toddler by then, our first born and soon to assume the mantle of Dauphine. I say mercurial because we all could not help looking for signs of what sort of woman she would grow to be, and darling little Anielle confounded us by being by being the flighty, changeable and insatiably curious little bundle of life that is every child’s right to be. Her hair grew out a lustrous blue-black, Shahrizai black. Some said that Melisande’s machinations had finally left their mark on the Throne, yet none that met our daughter could help adoring her, least of all Phedre and Joscelin. I think they saw kind of fulfillment of their own lives in her very existence. They may even have had the right of it, but nothing in my life had prepared me for the fulfillment that my daughter had brought me. Crowns and Kingdoms could not hold a candle Anielle’s place in my life.

Having said that, it may sound odd to tell you that on one exceptionally warm summer day we rode off into the mountains, leaving her in the care of Phedre, Joscelin and Alais for some time to ourselves. Yes, dear Alais too, spending one last relaxing summer with us in Siovale, and taking another opportunity to meet with Merrin and Sushulana. Merrin in particular fascinated her, they would spend hours together conversing about a multitude of subjects, philosophical ones mainly, and meditating quietly. The Dragon found her interesting as well, and believed Alais to have that special spark, one that could lead to the unlocking of her psychic potential. Awestruck, Alais had asked how much time he would allow her to decide if she wanted to take the steps to become a true mentalist. “The rest of your life.” was his answer. When she asked how long it would take her to unlock her potential to the fullest, he had given her the same answer.

Alais remained behind to ponder that as we rode off with a quartet of guards whom we also left behind before meeting with my Companion and her Mate. Hours from any human habitation, Sushulana and I sat comfortably on a stone shelf some 100 feet above a small river where our men, Imriel and Merrin, chatted amiably while the Dragon taught my husband a method of fishing. Merrin was rather passionate about it, and it looked interesting. He used a long flexible pole to whip a waxed string about that floated on the water, at the end of which was a bit of feather wrapped cunningly around a small hook to resemble an insect. ‘Fishing with Flies’ is what he called it, a way of tricking predatory fish into biting the hook. I didn’t understand at first, but watching from above I could see the meditative grace involved in doing it properly. Standing on rocks about 20 paces apart, Merrin tutored Imriel in the fine art of wasting an afternoon in the wilderness with nothing to show for it but a smile and a handful of small fish.

Sushulana’s contribution to our picnic was fine red wine, and we passed the bottle back and forth while we watched our men bend with the motions of their pastime and listened to them softly calling advice back and forth. Our own conversation carried us in and out of more dire concerns, such as Melisande and Kyrnos. The stakes may have been smaller than what she had played for in the past, yet the game as as intricate and deadly as anything my mother in-law could have hoped for. “She may yet pull it off.” Sushulana told me with a lazy smile, chewing on a bit of straw. “They needed a little help, and so we found her some. You remember Claudia Fulvia? Seems that an early retirement from the Great Game didn’t suit her, so after her husband passed away she allowed herself to be drawn into the tempest on Kyrnos again… with a little encouragement.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh? Just a little, yes?”

“Yes, very little, she and Melisande are having a wonderful time tripping their enemies up, last I heard.” There were other things she told me about the goings-on all across Europa and the Southern Sea, things she had wanted to pass on before we became more comfortable and the wine started to have its way with us, and conversation inevitably became more personal. She plucked a sphere about 2 inches across from one of her many pockets and looked it over for a moment before passing it on to me. I had thought it to be a bit of marble, another exotic toy for Anielle, and then I took it in my hand and looked more closely. It had been worked deliberately, brown stone inlay set in a blue-white bit of jade. There seemed to be no pattern to it, and then I recognized the outline of of Europa, the Seas, Terre d’Ange itself. I gasped and sat bolt upright.

I was holding my world in my fingertips.

“So tiny!” And I did not mean the sphere. My travels had given me a fair sense of scale, and it was the realms I was familiar with that seemed dwarfed by everything else. The sweep of Asia, Africa extending far beyond what my beloved had thought the farthest reach of the South, and unknown continents! Sushulana drew my attention to the very opposite side of the sphere, the polar opposite of where Terre d’Ange was located. To the southeast of a small Continent lay a pair of islands.

“That is where we go to relax, and made some discoveries instead. Merrin named it Nova Angelica. It’s a lovely place, some parts are even more gorgeous than the Chowat. There are people there, just recently arrived and not many of them, and they need help. We managed to prevent them from annihilating the giant, flightless birds that live there. Otherwise the Eagles that prey on the huge birds would have switched to stealing their babies. They need other sorts of help too, but it’s such a lush land that people with the right ideas can’t help but do well. Sidonie, I would like to open that door now.”

Sushulana spoke of something she has arranged for just days after her first Midwinter Ball. Imriel and I had commissioned a Chapel to be built in the middle of Night’s Dorrstep, one dedicated to star-crossed lovers such as ourselves. The foundation was still being built up then, and she had asked us to install a room of her own design in the deepest level. That small room was kept empty, as had a door that could be opened from the inside no matter how the outside was secured. Inside was nothing but another doorway that seemed to go nowhere. In reality it was half of a doorway, a magical gateway waiting for Sushulana to build it’s mate somewhere, and now I knew where it would be. “I would like you to send us your troubled ones. Couples desperate for a new beginning that they can’t have here. Not just those, the misfits, those contemplating suicide, orphans … any d’Angeline for whom life in Terre d’Ange isn’t working out.“

She went on to describe a sort of reverse-colonization. Our Kingdom would not be imposing itself on a ‘lesser’ people. Individuals would come _seeking help_ , and to be helpful to those that volunteered to take them in. Mutually empowering, with only the language barrier to slow them down, and the time they needed to learn a new language would also be used by Merrin and Sushulana to to detect and curb any difficulties that the more troubled refugees might cause among the natives. 'Making the world Terre d’Ange' is how she described it, elegant and fascinating and so very much her _way_ … I gave my approval without a second thought. The more she spoke, the less attention I paid to the words and the more I paid to the woman herself. I noticed the emphasis she was putting on words like ‘babies’ and ‘orphans’, and the vision of her as a schoolteacher came to mind. I wanted to ask her more personal things, but I had to be careful how I went about it.

“How does Merrin feel about all this? And, more importantly, how do _you_ feel, being with him all the time now?”

“Me?” She smiled in an adorably arousing way. “Oh, a little like _Fey_ Wray, sometimes. Ah.... never mind, inside joke.”

The words escaped me, but the meaning was clear enough. “He’s stopped treating you like a delicate little Doll, then?”

“Oh Gods, yes! Sid, he was like that because he’d been learning from some of the adepts in the Night Court that winter. He’d frightened some of them, and he hurt one of them pretty badly. You didn’t hear about it because he smoothed things over as only he can, but he continues to learn. He comes on stronger, just a little at a time, and its as if every time we come together … there is something new there for each of us! Its… its really the best I’ve ever imagined.” Coming from her, that was saying a great deal, and I hugged her for the joy of it. She hugged back, and added. "And as I think you can guess, it thrills me to no end to know that I'm doing the same for him."

The hug lead to a kiss, and I had to ask; “Is he still insisting on monogamy?”

“Yes, its not so much to ask, easy to be that way... considering what we have.” She sat back a little, with eyes and smile so soft that I felt my heart thump into my ribs. “Its also what I want for myself now. I know what you want to ask, Sid. The answer is yes, sooner than I thought it would happen.” She took my hand and gently placed it on her tummy.

I had not even known she had made her request to Eisheth yet. “Your pregnant?!?”

I heard my words echo from the far side of the canyon as Sushulana nodded and smiled. I could not feel anything different, her body was the same as ever to my mundane senses, but her face told me it had to be true. Then she rolled her eyes and leaned over the cliff to answer Merrin's shout. “Yes, I told her.” She called out to the upturned faces of our men down below. “Go ahead and share the news, my lover.”

Sushulana then stood up and helped me to my feet. That was when she saw my face more clearly.

 

The worry, the fear for her, I don’t think she had seen me more so upset since she had talked me through the period of depression that had followed Merrin’s revelations about the judgement of our Gods. Once their fate had been resolved, my own past haunted me, the only three people I had ever killed. I do not count Astegal in this, Imriel had laid him low and had permitted me to share in his glory, and to regain the honor the Carthaginian opportunist had cost me. What had happened in the Fortress was different. The most horrid to describe, killing the female torturer with an iron bar, affected me the least. That had been righteous fury, and the man who had died choking on the arrow that I’d put through his throat had been about to call men down on us with intentions to kill. No, the worst was the one that was least demanding to accomplish; that Guard standing there, reduced to dust with a wand and a spoken word. The ease of it, and the fact that I did it to attack and not to defend, ate away at me… until Sushulana did her best to redeem the debt she owed me for those 3 days and nights in the Governor’s Palace. She understood what I was going through, and although she may not be keen to pick up on many of the nuances of human interaction, Sushulana understood me very well. Nearly as well as Imriel in some ways, and in this... perhaps better.

I found out that she understood why we had taken that terrible risk in the Fortress, and that she knew what we would have to do if we failed to rescue them. My heart dropped into my stomach like a stone when I realized that Sushulana knew we would have had to kill her, and Merrin, rather than allow the Unseen Guild to use them as tools of darkness. Indeed, she thought that it would come to pass when we betrayed and disarmed her, right next to Merrin as he sat chained and helpless. ‘You gave us a hell of a scare, but you know, I forgave you before we’d even left the room.’ Faced with that, how could I be so self-centered that I could not forgive myself, and move on?

 

Now, on that cliff, she walked me a few feet back from the edge and out of sight of our men. Still all softness and light, she asked; “What troubles you?”

Anielle’s birth had not been an easy one, and it was never far from my mind that Imriel wanted more, as did I. It also reminded me of something else from our past. “What Merrin said back in the Chowat, how Dragons are born…” She laughed in my face, and then covered her mouth. Far from being offended, I grabbed her shoulders and laughed back. “You found a way!”

“Oh yes, we did, we surely did.” She reached behind her to undo the fastenings that held her dress together. She could travel in ways that allowed her to go about in fine clothes, and she was wearing the red & white dress with the gold trim that day. It was the only bit of finery that she had salvaged from the wreck of L’Indiscreet. Her Companion’s Star was displayed prominently on the bodice.

  
I took a step back. She had just mentioned her monogamous relationship with Merrin, I had no idea what she could be up to, and blurted out; “I wasn’t asking for a demonstration!”

“You’d have 13 months to wait if you wanted one!” She laughed again as she stepped out of the dress, revealing that she wore nothing at all underneath. “Take this and set it aside for Anielle. I have seen her admiring what her ‘Fairy God-Mother’ wears, she will grow into and then out of it before she starts courting… but it will suit her better than what her doting ‘Protector’ would cover her with.” She and Merrin had heartily approved of Barquiel being appointed Anielle’s oath-bound Protector, the 3-4 months they spent every year inside the Kingdom hardly allowed them to fill the role properly. Nor could people who officially did not exist hold such a title.

“This you save for me, I’ll be along to pick it back up tonight.” She unhooked the Star from the dress as she folded it away, and turned the Campanion’s Star so that we could both see the inscrption on the back.

Nemesis became soul-sister  
as  
Phaing became Sushulana

 

It was arranged that way in a convenient space on the back of the star, and I knew it would please Sushulana. She alone would appreciate the perfectly true sentiment, the artistry of the engraving, and the fact that it could serve as a useful password & counter-sign. In 100 years they might have need of it. In the back of my mind was the fear that they would grow apart from our people. By that time, everyone they now knew would be dead, and by then they could have an Empire of their own to look out for.

The light in her eyes, and the way Sushulana smiled, give me hope that this would not be the case.

“The people of Montreve do a wonderful job of keeping this little land secure for you, don’t they?” She said casually, laying the Star in my hands temporarily. "They should be rewarded, perhaps with the sight of something miraculous, eh?”

“What? The sight of you, dancing about the edge of forest wearing nothing but a smile?” I was still laughing. My eyes went to her belly, and I imagined that I could see the bare beginnings of a bump there. Truthfully, she looked exactly this same as she had 5 years before, she and Imriel both, something that was hardly true of my own body after Anielle. “And what does this have to do with… your condition?”

“Everything. I have been sleeping by the side of a master psionicist, and he has unlocked my potential. Just enough to gift me with the talent that will see me through this.” She had been stepping away from me as she spoke, back towards the cliff. “I’ll not be able to do this many more times before the birthing. Twins he tells me, but I do want you to be the first one to see this.”

Sushulana spun about on her heels and dove straight off the cliff.

“No!” I dropped the dress and the star and took three steps after her, thinking for an instant that she was diving into the river. It was too shallow, too many rocks, and so far down.

 ** _WHOMP_**.

I knew that sound. Dragon’s wings unfurling to catch the air. Stepping to the very edge of the cliff, I saw Sushulana coming back into view, upwards. And… upwards. She had a height advantage on me now, a considerable one, in the form of a Dragon.

I was shocked, yes, but for fewer heartbeats than you would believe. It was her, unmistakably Sushulana, her deceptively delicate beauty with its whip-saw edge, translated into Dragon form. Her hair was the clue to recognizing her color; now she looked like a vast piece of jewelry made of living Gold, with mahogany highlights here and there. She took my breath away, hovering there before me in a dazzling display of wingbeats that allowed her hang in the air before me. I could appreciate the skill required to fly like that, the effort she must have put into learning to use a whole new body that way. What I could not imagine was the mind-stretching diligence she had applied to learning how to re-shape her body into what I saw.

Sushulana had found a way to have Merrin’s children.

‘ _I’ll not be able to do this many more times before the birthing_ ’, ah… of course. What sort of confusion might it cause to the tiny lives growing inside her if her body kept shifting back and forth? Yes, she would be saying goodbye for a while, but when we saw her again…

I smiled up at her, and it must have been a good one, my cheeks hurt later. Sushulana did not smile back, she may have been reluctant to bare her teeth at me. The angle she held her head at was easy to read, she was happy to be showing off, if only for me and for Imriel below. Her eyes were very much the same as ever, and they told me more. Sushulana looked down the valley, towards Montreve and beyond.

I was not Queen yet, there would be Hell to pay if the wrong word got back to the Palace with all its gossip, and I could not have cared less about any of that. I sang out to my adopted sister with all the clarity and love I could give her;

“Yes! Go ahead, _go show the world what you can be_!”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I never actually meant for this to get so huge, but the story took on a life of its own. 200k words all together, and now I wonder if that was enough. Doesn't really seem that way, considering the richness of the actual series... but then again, how nuts can you go with fanfic?
> 
> Pretty nuts, if what's still in my head is any indication.
> 
> I left it so that the Naamah trilogy is untouched, but I have ideas along those lines. According to my pesky little muse, book 2 would be Elua's Covenant, concerning how Merrin and Sushulana would fend off a massive Tatar invasion and Chin treachery, while trying to evade Kali's wrath at the same time. 
> 
> That one's not so clear in my head yet, not as much as #3 is.  
> Elua's Companions would take us to the unrevealed year between books 2 and 3 of Moiren's story, and told from her POV. A pair of Dragons need help with their 4th child, an uncontrollable teenaged daughter that has developed a Hero-fixation on, you guessed it, Moiren and Bao.
> 
>  
> 
> This one I DO have a clear vision of, and I may go ahead and put the first couple of chapters here someday soon. However, I'll wait until its fully polished this time.
> 
> And now, its time for me to go back to being a spectator for a while, and catch up on my own reading!


End file.
